The Proposition
by Basmathgirl
Summary: In a Brexit AU, the Doctor is told by UNIT he must gain British citizenship or be deported. So, what does he do? Finds a wife…
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I blame Sandra Bullock for this one. And Ryan Reynolds. I don't own them either.  
 **A/N:** this was meant to be a birthday present. Oops! A little bit late, shall we say….

* * *

 **Chapter One**

.

It was time to make a home visit so after recuperating from the effects of Midnight on the near deserted planet of Haffiox, the Doctor steered the TARDIS towards Earth. The peace and quiet of the last few days had calmed his fears enough for him to be even able to suggest making such an excursion; but faithful Donna had remained by his side, offering support and comfort without any unnecessary gush.

He could love her for it. Anyway.

A hop, skip and jump later, the TARDIS landed outside the 1930s built semi Donna used to call home, with a very satisfactory bump. The Doctor spun the monitor towards him and announced to no one in particular, "Chiswick, London, England, Great Britain, Europe, Earth, Sol System."

"Give over, you tart. Never mind all the faff," Donna had playful chastised him before she grinned up at him from the console in triumph. "How did I do?"

He nodded warmly. "Nice piloting skills. Brilliant, as always, Donna Noble," he complimented her. "We avoided that meteor shower around Jupiter wonderfully well. Now, the only stormy weather we might face will be from your mother's direction."

She immediately saw through his bravado, reached out and placed a comforting hand on his arm. "Don't worry about her. She's merely a storm in a teacup and I'll be there to veer her off onto other topics should things go even a little bit pear-shaped."

His smile said his thanks for him, and he held out his hand in invitation. "Come on. Let's see how we fare."

o0o

"Hello Donna. I see you've got _him_ with you again," Sylvia commented when she opened her front door to them minutes later. "I hope you haven't come to blow the car up this time," she aimed towards him as they stepped into the hallway.

"No, Sylvia. Everything is a one off with me," he cheekily pronounced.

"We'll see," she replied, determined to be unimpressed by his antics despite guessing he had had more than a hand in clearing the sky from all those fumes weeks beforehand. "Go on through and I'll put the kettle on. No doubt you are gasping for a cup of tea."

"Not half, Mum," Donna readily agreed as she led the way to the kitchen.

After having acquired a seat at the table in there, it didn't take too long for mugs of tea to be produced for their consumption, along with the offer of a biscuit. Sylvia obviously had something on her mind as she sat down with them. She leaned over to a nearby countertop and picked up a piece of mail.

"Oh, while I think of it, there's a letter for you," Sylvia sneered at the Doctor, passing him an official looking brown envelope as if it contained the Ebola virus. "It came the other day."

"For me?" he gasped out in surprise as he took it from her reluctant clutches.

"That's what it says," she sniffed haughtily. "Although gawd knows why they've got my address as your contact one. Why on Earth did you go and give it out like that?"

"I didn't," he denied, his attention more on the envelope in his hand than on her points scoring contest. "Donna, any idea why this would have come here?"

"No idea," she admitted as she sidled up to peer at the writing. "I don't know. Perhaps you have been in an accident, you qualify for a government loan for solar panels, you aren't satisfied with your electricity supplier, or you were mis-sold a PPI with a mortgage. It could be any number of things they are trying to sell you."

"A mortgage?" he questioned, scrunching his face up in disgust.

She merely shrugged back at him, unrepentant. "Not many people have even known you've been at Mum's, let alone think you might be contactable here. Well go on! Open it, you prawn. You'll never know until you read whatever's inside."

With a flourish, he ripped the flap up, and joked, "I now declare this envelope open!" He playfully waggled his eyebrows. "Have always wanted to do that."

Donna merely rolled her eyes in mock exasperation. "It must have been killing you to wait this long."

"You could say that," he responded.

"Never mind all that! What does it say?" Sylvia demanded, clearly frustrated by waiting.

"I think your mum wants to know what it says," he cheekily murmured to Donna.

"She'll also flatten you if you don't hurry up and read it out," Sylvia grumbled a threat.

Making a great show of pulling out his spectacles and placing them carefully on his nose before squinting at the letter contained within the envelope, the Doctor scanned through the contents and then exclaimed, "What!"

"What does it say, Doctor?" Donna queried, trying to sneak a decent peak over his shoulder.

He flourished the paper in the air in front of her nose. "It says," he began, "that in line with the current Brexit policy, all known immigrants and refugees resident in the UK must prove their connection to the country or face deportation. UNIT insists that I either prove I am British or leave."

"You what?!" Donna floundered and took the letter from out of his hand.

"Does it say that?" Sylvia asked, watching Donna frown as she read the letter several times.

"Not half it does," Donna fumed. "They're threatening to chuck the Doctor out of the country unless he can prove he's a British citizen. Of all the cheek!" She turned her attention on the Doctor. "How can they do this to you after all the times you've saved our bacon? Talk about ungrateful; the scumbags! They don't deserve all the things you've done to stop this country going to the dogs."

"Well, I've done a few things," he tried to modestly admit.

"A few!" Donna raged. "A few per year you mean. Where's Colonel Mace's phone number? I bet it was him and that UNIT lot that are behind this. I'm going to give that jumped up pipsqueak a piece of my mind. Just you wait."

The more she raged, the wider the smile grew on the Doctor's face.

"And what's got into you, Time boy? Anyone would think you're enjoying this," she spat at him. "Why aren't you annoyed?"

He gently placed a hand over hers to stop her fervently thumbing through a copy of the Yellow Pages. "Oh, I'm angry, I assure you. But for now, I'm also enjoying you get so annoyed on my behalf."

"Well of course I would," she blustered. "You're my mate."

"And very glad of that I am," he cheerily agreed.

Wanting to break into this touching scene, Sylvia sneered at him. "All this chumminess won't stop you being kicked out. What are you going to do?"

"I have no idea what I'm going to do about this letter. Sue the backside off them?" he suggested in Donna's direction.

"Hey you, that's my line," Donna joked. "But it's not such a daft idea. Perhaps we could contact the Queen and remind her how you stopped her being blown to smithereens last Christmas. Along with the rest of us."

"I'm not sure that would be the way to go," he pondered. "This needs tea."

"Talking of which, any chance of another cup, Mum?"

"A tea making service, that's all I am to you," Sylvia grumbled, and huffed all the way to the kitchen sink before switching the kettle back on.

o0o

It wasn't until they were alone back in the TARDIS that the Doctor returned to the subject that was worrying him. "What am I going to do about that letter, Donna?" he softly wondered, stepping away from the console after dematerialisation.

"Go back in time and fill out a British passport application form," she suggested; quite reasonably, to her ears.

"I can't do that!" he insisted.

"Surely your old mate the Brigadier could rustle you up a passport, for goodness sake," she maintained. "Or failing that, Jack could fake you one."

"It has to be done legally," he argued. "This calls for desperate measures," he pondered, grabbing hold of his chin in order to think. "I'll have to marry a British citizen."

"What. Like that film 'Green Card', with the French bloke. Gerard Depardieu?" she reasoned out. "Sounds possible. Shame we haven't got your Professor Song to drag out and drop loads of hints about your wedding," Donna idly noted.

"She isn't my Professor Song, and her death makes the whole argument moot," the Doctor retorted. "Perhaps there is a much better alternative."

After a few seconds, Donna murmured, "Well… There's a very likely candidate, of course, if you want to."

His jaw dropped in surprise. "You don't mind?"

She frowned. "Why would I?"

"Because it'd affect you personally," he carefully explained.

"I don't see why it would," she argued, "since it wouldn't stop me travelling with you."

"I meant in other ways," he stressed.

Her eyebrows narrowed in confusion. "What 'other ways'? Unless I don't get to be bridesmaid or best woman, I suppose."

He moved nearer to check her eyes, to see if she was on drugs. "You wouldn't get to be either, you do realise that? It isn't exactly a one woman show."

"Are you saying you wouldn't even have me as your best wo-man?" she seethed. "That is mean! Meaner than the meanest you've ever been. And I've been friends with Nerys for years, so I know meanness when I see it."

"Okay," he slowly said. "A little bit confused now. How would that be mean of me?"

She huffed, "Because I thought our friendship was special."

"It is!" He glared at her in frustration.

Tilting her head like a confused puppy, she wondered, "Then why can't I play a greater part in your wedding to Martha?"

"Because….," he started to expound but his explanation ground to a halt with a visible crash. "With who now? Martha?! Why would I marry Martha?" he spluttered.

"Give me strength," she muttered in exasperation. "The whole being deported for not being British so needing to marry a British woman thing. Surely you haven't forgotten already?"

"As if I could!" he near raged. "I'm being threatened with being kicked out of the country and you're blathering on about me marrying Martha."

"Well excuse me for caring!" she sarcastically retorted. "If you won't marry Martha, who will you walk up the aisle with?"

His manner went quieter as he moved even closer. "This might come as a complete surprise, but I was thinking of… _you_."

She stood stock still for some seconds; staring at him. "Me?! But… Why me?"

"Oh, I don't know," he pretended to ponder. "Convenient, companion, best friend; all of the above. I just thought you might prefer the position of bride rather than bridesmaid or best man-type person. You're ideal, when you think about it."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** I was asked for more, so here it is.

* * *

 **Chapter Two**

.

Donna continued to gawp at him. " _Ideal_?" she queried in a tone he couldn't quite make out the miffedness value of.

"Well," he drawled, playing for time. "Normally ideal is subjective but you have to admit that you fulfil all the criteria."

"Oh, I see," she pithily replied. "British, female, marriageable age, within two metres of you, and available. I can see the logic. Then again, we could go back to Mum's and get her to become engaged to you. Or Gramps, now that same sex couples can have more than a civil ceremony. It'd all mean the same."

"Donna!" he griped, stringing out the two syllables. "Do you have to? After our moment on the rooftop, the day we first met, I thought you'd agree we should get properly married."

"You mean the whole biodamp thing?" she queried. "Where you made me feel SO important in the grand scheme of things. Obviously it made such an impression on you because you think I'd jump at the chance of marrying the first man, or whatever, who even hints at such a convenient way of losing my singledom."

He stared at her in shock. "You don't want to marry me?" he wondered, trying to cover the hurt he felt. "Even if it means I can never go back to London?"

"I'm not saying that, you prawn," she chastised. "And don't think I hadn't noticed the emotional blackmail aspect you are using on me. It's just…."

She sighed despondently, thinking of her lost plans to marry for love and be adored in return. Who was she kidding? No man had exactly raced to tie himself to her so far; and she knew she wanted to travel with the Doctor for the rest of her life, helping him cope with his lonely quest, so it didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things if that meant taking away any remote chance of marrying her own version of Prince Charming.

"It's just what?" he pressed, taking hold of her hand and entwining their fingers; showing the level of friendship he was still offering.

"Doesn't matter," she decided, shaking her head. "As long as you wait a few years before you divorce me, you'll be keeping your British passport long before you get to marry River Song. And I'll be just a bad dream."

"Donna," he growled in annoyance.

But she shut him up by placing her other hand over his mouth. "I know what you are going to say, and I'm sorry for causing you pain by mentioning her again. Me and my big fat mouth just won't shut up when I really need to stop and think."

Normally Donna would jump at the chance to get a proposal of marriage but so far this particular one wasn't ticking many boxes. Well, it helps if you are actually being proposed to, for a start; and merely being a convenient candidate didn't exactly excite her, shall we say. Been there, done that in the past and hadn't even got the T-shirt. Only an unwanted grope.

Was that all he wanted? She eyed him in suspicion. That couldn't cover him, could it? Surely not him. Not going by all the stuff Martha had said he'd prattled on about when she'd been with him.

Rebound, that's what they called this sort of thing. He couldn't have the woman he really wanted so he made do with the next best thing. For now. Although if Rose ever made it back into this universe, Donna would find herself suddenly at the receiving end of a cat fight, if the encounter with Sarah Jane was anything to go by. Unless he'd been merely boasting about that one. It was possible, if a little unlikely; like most of his stories.

From what he had said about this marriage situation, he had his own list of tick boxes he'd considered. Not that the list of possible candidates was all that long, but he was trying to make it sound as though it was. I mean, she only knew of four possible woman and the results of that ran: lost, dead, here, and engaged. Yep, that made her feel _really_ special, as though she'd won through an elimination round or by default. Whoop-de-doo. Go her.

It also meant there was ONLY her. She was his own hope of staying in the country which rather narrowed down her choices. If she said "No" she'd look a right selfish bitch. And it wasn't as though she wouldn't be able to get a divorce later. Or an annulment...

The word clanged loudly in her head. Of course the wedding would be annulled. What else would it be? He never acted overly interested in women or gaining a sex life, for goodness sake. That had been part if not the main reason why she had been willing to travel with him, she had to admit, if she was honest with herself. Living and travelling with a randy man/alien would have been a right turn off.

She knew he was capable of love and loving but was he asexual? So far she had assumed so. Had almost gambled on it, when you think about it. That meant that marriage didn't have to mean loads of unwanted grunting or being chased around the console. Things would carry on as they always had. Them righting wrongs together with her as the main support. The only difference would be the ring on her finger. Oh, and all those 'couple' comments would be taken to be true. Him and her; a true pair. Yes, she could live with that. And she knew that if she ever fell deeply in love with someone else, he'd let her go. He wasn't selfish like that. In fact, he was rather sweet. She could love him for it.

And in that moment, she realised that she hadn't answered his question after all that pondering.

"Well, Donna Noble. Will you marry me?" he cautiously repeated.

Taking in a deep breath, she nodded. "Yes, I'll marry you."

His face lit up like a bonfire. "You will?! Molte bene! Oooh, I could kiss you." He instantly spread his arms wide to offer such an invitation.

"Hang on," she said to stop him doing just that. "Is this your way of getting me back for the kitchen? Because I did that to save your life, not prank you."

He visibly gulped, and his eyes went wide open. "I assure you that I do not hold that kiss against you in any shape or form. You saved my life that day, and now you are about to save my backside, as it were." He noted that her eyes had travelled unbidden to his behind, and she didn't seem to mind the view any less than the first time she'd done that. "So I am merely sealing the deal with a friendly kiss. Nothing sordid. I would never risk such a thing. Not when I know how hard you slap."

"Alright, just get it over and done with," she sighed, and offered him her left cheek that he then dutifully placed a small kiss on. "There you go, all sorted. You need me to marry you, and I'll do that for the greater good. What do we have to do next to get this right?"

He didn't miss the slight tremble in her body and the shine of tears in her eyes, but he also knew that she would not openly own up to her fears. So he gently lifted her hand to his mouth and gave her fingers a tender kiss.

"The letter is a fixed point, so I have to work within its tight time frame. We can go back a few weeks if not a full month to arrange a wedding that falls either on the date of the letter or the day after. I think it best if we go and tell your family about it so that they can be there on the day as our witnesses. Is there anything else you would like included?" he offered.

"Not really. I suppose I ought to have an engagement ring to make it all look authentic; and a new wedding outfit, of course."

"Of course," he agreed. "First we go back a month or so to shop for an engagement ring, announce it to your family, pick up your birth certificate, go book the wedding, have our banns read or publicly posted during the intervening three weeks, and then challenge the letter."

"You've got it all worked out," she noted, smiling at him in amusement. "Do we get to practise some Mr & Mrs questions too?"

"All in good time," he smirked.

"And what do we tell Martha?"

"Ah," he hesitantly sighed. "We can discuss that as we choose rings."

"Rings?" she queried.

He shrugged. "I'm assuming you'd like us to have matching wedding rings too," he nonchalantly answered.

"I hadn't expected that. Whoever thought I'd ever get you eager to go shopping," she playfully commented. "And for wedding stuff too. If this is for some prank I will never forgive you."

Leaning in close, he whispered into her ear, "I'm deadly serious, Mrs."

"Where were we going to buy the ring?"

"Where do you suggest?"

"If this was real, the main place is Hatton Garden, but seeing as this is temporary, I don't mind choosing one out of the Argos catalogue if you like," she suggested.

"Temporary or not, you deserve the very best, Donna Noble," he insisted, taking a firm grasp of her hand. "Hatton Garden it is, and no arguing."

"Alright," she let herself be persuaded.

Well, why not, she reasoned to herself when he trilled, "Allons y," with far too much enthusiasm.

o0o

Two months previously later, he landed them in a back alley behind Hatton Garden in London. After getting her to choose a preference, he guided her towards a destination and then, to her delight, he had announced to the shop assistant in the first jewellery shop they'd entered, "My fiancée and I would like to purchase an engagement ring and possibly matching wedding rings too while we are here."

It had made Donna go all tingly inside. Especially when the woman had practically fallen over herself to serve them by offering various trays of rings from the display. It had sort of helped that he'd said price was no limit, that his fiancée deserved to have whatever her heart wanted.

Donna had tried to reason it was merely the thought of commission that made the woman so eager to serve them, but after some seconds she had to admit that the shop assistant would have out and out flirted with him given half a chance.

What a chancer! Alright, he was good looking, but he was also clearly taken; thank you very much.

Making the woman jealous did rather add to the event though, and Donna couldn't have been happier as she chose the ring she wanted. Yes, the refracted light from the diamond cluster lit up the woman's narked expression especially well, Donna thought.

By the time they walked out of the shop with their purchase she was on cloud nine.

Even him declaring that their next step would be to inform her family didn't put a huge dent in her happiness. Instead, she practised moving her hand about with the heavy jewel upon it for the greatest effect. It was all going almost too well.

o0o


	3. Chapter 3

**Part Three**

.

The Doctor peered sideways at Donna; feeling decidedly pleased with himself. So far, this little escapade had gone awfully well. She seemed happy with their choice of ring, having agreed to marry him, of course, and they were about to make their first big announcement. His position within the country was looking steadier as time went on and UNIT could go take a running jump off the nearest cliff, for all he cared.

The next possible blip on the horizon was telling her family; but he was determined that the next major step towards safety would be booking the ceremony, no matter how dodgy a reception their news gained from Sylvia Noble. And the best thing of all was how happy Donna looked wearing his ring.

His ring, worn by his fiancée.

Yes, he had to keep repeating that to himself to make it sink in properly. It felt surreal after centuries of being a confirmed bachelor.

"How do you want me to act towards you?" he suddenly asked as they stood on the doorstep of her former home.

"What do you mean?" she wondered. "Just be normal. I mean, be yourself."

"I was wondering if you wanted me to act all gushy," he explained, "so that your mother would be convinced we have a serious relationship now."

"Don't know about her but I'd be tempted to wallop you one if you started being all weird. Well, weirder than normal," she reasoned. "As you are right now is fine. Especially the holding hands thing. Nothing much else will be expected."

"Good," he said in relief, and gave her hand a nervous squeeze. "I hope she likes the ring we picked out."

"Doctor, who's the one who'll be wearing this ring? Me. Not her," she pointed out, "so stop worrying. Okay, Mum'll moan it's you I'm marrying instead of some millionaire, but she'll soon get used to it."

"I've got a few bob put by," he defended himself, adjusting his tie at the same time.

She reached up and forced his tie to lie in a better position at his throat, patting his jacket in quiet joy. "There's no need to tell fibs, but feel free to make up any romantic tosh that you like." She added in a caress to his bottom lip with her fingertip

Any argument he instantly formed to deny his romantic tales were tosh was halted by the front door being opened to reveal Donna's granddad standing there on the doormat.

"Hello Gramps!" she chimed.

He saw an intimate gesture suddenly and hastily abandoned, and inwardly crowed with delight. "Donna, my girl! And his lordship is here with you! Come in," Wilf greeted the couple, offering hugs and a handshake to the pair of them. "It's lovely to see you. Go through to the back. Your mum has just made a pot of tea. You must have smelt it."

"Good. We have some news," Donna threw over her shoulder at him as she made her way down the passageway towards the kitchen. "Hello Mum!" she greeted her mother.

Further greetings and kisses were exchanged before Wilf asked his burning question. "You said you had news? What sort of news?"

"There's no other way of saying this, so…" Donna brought her left hand up and wiggled her open fingers at her mother to display the ring they'd just bought. "We're engaged to be married."

Sylvia's face went from horrified shock to delight within seconds, whereas Wilf practically burst with happiness.

"Congratulations! I wish you well to wear it. Let's have a look," she requested, and guided Donna's hand closer to get a better look. "Oh my! It's gorgeous, and expensive. Have you seen the size of this, Dad? So who are you marrying? Have I met him yet?"

Was she out of her tiny mind? "Once or twice, Sylvia," the Doctor supplied, jiggling expectantly about on the balls of his feet.

But Sylvia was still too busy examining the ring to take the hint. "Do you know him personally, Doctor?"

"Just a bit," Donna smirked. "Oh, come on, Mum. You can't be that thick!"

"Some things aren't as obvious as you seem to think they are," Sylvia retorted. "As long as it isn't the Doctor here, I'm sure I can take the news."

"Er, Sylvia," Wilf cautioned, anxiously rubbing the end of his nose. "I don't think you mean that to sound the way it does."

"Don't I?" she challenged, and then the penny dropped. "Oh!" she gasped and released Donna's hand like a ton of hot bricks. "You and _him_?" she questioned her daughter. "You're actually engaged to be married to _that_ man? After he blew the car up, almost killed your grandfather and everything?!"

"You didn't seem to mind when he blew the sky up and got rid of those potato people," Wilf helpfully pointed out.

"Yes, thank you, Dad! There's no need to remind me." She glared at the Doctor as though she was willing him to change into someone else entirely. "Can you be trusted?"

"Depends what with," the Doctor reasoned. "I worked with UNIT for years, and I'm quite good with secrets, aren't I, Donna."

"Brilliant," Donna hastily agreed.

"So, he's keeping your nasty little secrets," Sylvia reasoned out.

"It works both ways," the Doctor commented, and only then noticed the malicious gleam in her eyes. "Except… of course… that erm… I don't and…. Donna doesn't. Nothing at all. Nope, nothing to declare."

"Hmm." Sylvia scowled at him and silently mouthed, "Idiot." She then pointedly returned her attention back onto the ring proudly worn on Donna's finger. "Yes. Well. It's certainly a lovely, expensive ring you've bought her," she noted as though she were desperately trying to find something positive to say. "Careful, Doctor, or she'll spend every penny you make."

"Thank you, Mum," Donna self-conscientiously mumbled.

"Not a problem, Sylvia," the Doctor gleefully, and deliberately, emphasised. "I'm far from poor, and Donna is worth it. Although nothing will be as beautiful as she is."

Donna gasped in surprise, but Sylvia was suitably impressed.

"Then I can finally say: 'welcome to the family'," Wilf gushed, rushing forward to shake the Doctor's hand with an enthusiastic pump of his own. "Make sure you look after my favourite granddaughter properly. We can't have anything bad happening to her."

"She looks after me," the Doctor replied, grinning from ear to ear. "Although sometimes she lets me take care of her for a change."

"That's enough," Donna muttered under her breath in embarrassment to him so that only he could hear.

"When's the wedding?" Wilf immediately asked. "Any idea about a possible date?"

"Ah, about that," the Doctor stalled, giving his neck a comforting rub. "We want to get married as soon as possible and are about to go and book it all."

"Why?" Sylvia demanded angrily. "Don't tell me. Are you up the duff?" she aimed at Donna. "I _knew_ it! Didn't I say that would happen, Dad, when she went off gallivanting around the world with him. Well, I'll tell you now, young lady; you won't dump a baby on me while you go off getting up to gawd knows what."

"No!" Donna cried in her defence. "This isn't a shotgun wedding. And there's no baby. Far from it."

"We just felt that there was no reason to wait," the Doctor added. When Sylva glared at him as though he was an idiot, he quickly tacked on, "For the wedding… and not to have a baby… But you never know when…. If… Anyway, I have a home to offer Donna, some money in the bank, and a steady job so we thought 'why not?' and here we are: engaged to be married."

"A bit quick, isn't it?" Sylvia argued.

"Not really," he denied, thinking of Donna's previous engagement. "I've known Donna for almost two years, since Christmas before last when we met and hit it off immediately; but we have waited until now to admit our feelings."

"So this with him isn't just a rebound thing after you jilted Lance?" Sylvia sought to confirm from Donna. "I hope you didn't just swap Lance in for him."

"I didn't…," Donna started to deny doing any such thing to Lance, and then gave up on that. She knew from past experience that it would get her nowhere. And she had to big up the Doctor in her mother's eyes if their story was ever going to be believed. "No, Mum. It isn't like that with us. I tried to ignore how I felt about the Doctor, but I couldn't lie to myself any longer. That's when I went looking for him. Luckily for me, he felt the same way."

"Then this is real?" Sylvia asked in the same vein. "Not some five-minute wonder?"

"Not at all," the Doctor schmoozed, taking possession of Donna's nearest hand to draw her near. "I want to marry your daughter. She is everything I could ever want in life so what do you say? Will you come to our wedding?"

Sylvia sighed in reluctant happiness. Who would have thought she'd have a young man like this begging to marry her daughter? No woman could ever deny that felt good. "Just you try stopping us," she retorted. "Let's have some fresh tea to celebrate. The Wednesday Girls will never believe this when I tell them. I can hardly wait."

"You've made her very happy," Wilf added when Sylvia turned her back on them to make the tea.

All Donna had to do was smile brightly at the Doctor and grasp his hand tightly. This situation may be bonkers, but it suddenly felt really good too.

o0o


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** with an added bit for **shadowolf17**

* * *

 **Part Four**

.

They stood outside the local Chiswick registry office, a short distance away in Hammersmith. It was also the town hall.

"Just to double check, we're agreed that we take the first possible date, no matter what time it is for, right?" the Doctor sought to check, looking at Donna's face for any sign of disagreement.

"Of course," she confirmed. "Whenever we can."

Taking in a deep breath for encouragement, they stepped in through the large double doors and into the foyer beyond. Finding the appropriate receptionist, the Doctor told her, "We want to arrange to get married here."

She smiled at them. "Certainly." And then began to pull out the appropriate forms for them to fill in.

"What year have you put for your birthdate?" Donna leaned close to whisper to the Doctor as he wrote.

"The one that matches the birth certificate I have," he answered.

"Funny!" she grumbled and took the form to fill in her information.

He peered at her written information. "You're thirty-seven?!" he queried, raising his eyebrow in disbelief.

"Yeah, what of it?" she snapped back. "Not all of us are spring chickens."

"No, no, I didn't mean it like that. I just assumed you are younger." When she glared at him, he amended it to, "You certainly look younger than that. Early thirties, I would have said."

"Thank you," she muttered, not believing the compliment at all but letting it go nevertheless. "I'm dying to use the loo. Won't be long."

"But what if they offer me a date?" he pathetically queried, frightened to see her leaving him in such a bureaucratic place.

"Then you accept it. D'uh!" she scoffed. "See you in a minute."

Without a backwards glance, she left him to cope on his own and went in search of a public toilet.

It was as she came out of a stall and went to wash her hands that she heard, "Look what the cat's dragged in."

She turned to see who had accosted her. "Nerys!" she cried out in shock. "What are you doing here?"

"Come to pay our council tax," Nerys supplied as she dried off her own hands. "What about you?"

"We're g… doing the same," Donna reworded her reply. Should she admit to Nerys she was getting married?

The Doctor had said that he wanted only a few people to know about it and turn up since it was meant to be a very quiet affair. Even his most recent travelling companions didn't know about it yet. Perhaps he thought they'd stop him committing such a rash act? It was anybody's guess.

"Why don't we all meet up and go have a coffee?" Nerys offered. "Me and Nina haven't seen your mum in ages." When Donna hesitated, she tacked on, "It'd be my treat."

"Well, you see, I erm, I'm not here with Mum," Donna admitted. "My friend is waiting for me."

Nerys instantly smelt a rat. "Friend? What friend? Is there something wrong with your mum?"

"No, nothing like that," Donna hastily reassured her. "It's just that he…" Then her explanation faltered to a stop.

"A man? You're here with a man? You got yourself another bloke already?" Nerys teased. "Kate down at Jackson's had said she'd seen you going about with a new bloke but I didn't believe her. I said: 'Donna would tell me if she's got a new boyfriend, and she ain't', so that told her. And here you are admitting you've finally replaced Lance. Well? When do I get to meet him?"

"I'm meeting him later. Yes, that's it," Donna replied. "He's had to go down to the bank and sort some paperwork out. But I'll let you see him. Don't worry. Why don't you pop round later and we can do it properly?"

Eyeing her suspiciously, Nerys agreed, "Alright. I'll do that. Are you frightened I'll lure him away with my good looks or something? It's not like you to be all secretive. Normally you can't wait to show off a new man in your life."

Donna forced herself to laugh. "Don't be daft! We just don't have a lot of time right now and I promised I'd hurry up and meet him."

"If you say so," Nerys conceded. "Give my love to your mum and I'll see you later."

"Bye!" Donna watched her old friend and enemy leave the town hall building, and then raced back to the registry office to find the Doctor.

"There you are!" he declared with relief when he saw her return. "All sorted," he happily stated, waving a pile of papers in the air to demonstrate what he'd arranged. "Now all we have to do is go tell your family then we can jump forward a couple of weeks."

He grinned with delight when she made a point of kissing his cheek in greeting and then wrapped her arm around his. "Are you alright?"

"Marvellous," she breathily answered, "but there's something I need to warn you about." She took a dramatic pause before stating, "I've just seen Nerys."

o0o

His face was stormy as they left the registry office and walked along the busy high street outside.

"Oh, I've seen that look before. Out with it. What have I done this time?" Donna goaded him.

"Done?" He stopped to face her full on, nostrils flaring as he did so. "You make me want a divorce."

"Divorce! How can we divorce? We're not even married!"

"And whose fault is that?" he spat back. "All you seem to do is throw up problems to delay it. You even left me alone to arrange the date while you went off. We could have eloped to Gretna Green, Las Vegas, or any other type of place where you can marry immediately. But no! You wanted it here where your family can see it."

"Well excuse me for needing the loo and for actually wanting something personal out of this," she raged. "And if you bring up the fact Rose would have happily gone through a ceremony on a log in the middle of the Amazon rainforest or some other such stupid place, I shall take great delight in knocking you into kingdom come!"

He scrunched his nose up in confusion. "Why would I mention Rose right now?"

"D'uh!" she mocked him. "Any reason to make someone older or, you know, not actually her, feel like nothing and you just can't seem to resist a mention in some form or other. Don't think I haven't noticed because I have," she stressed. "Every single time. In fact, keep this up and you'll wake up one morning with a frying pan embedded in your head if you're not careful. I may have left my teenage years behind almost two decades ago but I don't need the constant reminders that not only removes me from your wish list but also pegs me as well passed it. Have we got that clear?!"

An irate digit was being prodded into his chest and his shocked eyes gazed at her in new understanding. "You think I do all that to put you down? Oh Donna, that is far from my intentions. Quite the opposite. I trust you enough to tell you everything. Well," he drawled, trying to take it back, "almost everything. Have to keep the aura of mystique between us for as long as I can, don't I?" he cheekily added.

"It's not the aura of mystique I'm getting from you," she pithily replied. "The smell is much more organic," she allured to her disbelief in what he was saying without swearing.

"Donna Noble," he quietly but firmly began, wrapping his arms around her waist to emphasise his point, "to me you are extremely youthful, nowhere near passed it, my best friend, the woman I am more than prepared to marry and make happy in any way I can. Seeing Nerys obviously rattled you for a moment, but we can get passed this. You and me."

The only place to put her hands was on his shoulders, but it felt too intimate a gesture out on a public road with the world whizzing by. It some effort to look directly in his face, and what she saw there thrilled her in ways she was not supposed to feel.

"Then it's okay to tell Nerys about us? she wondered. "I thought you wanted it kept silent."

"Like a nasty secret," he finished for her. "No, there's no need to. I just don't want to draw any unwanted attention to myself. Sorry. I should have made that clearer for you rather than let you think I'm ashamed of you; of this. Come here," he softy demanded, and pulled her closer into his embrace, placing a kiss in her forehead. "If anything were to happen to you because of some enemy of mine, I'd never forgive myself. That's all I'm worried about. Certainly not the gossip Nerys can spread."

"Are you sure?" she asked from a muffled position against his chest. "She's more than an expert at it."

Using one finger to lift her chin, he assured her, "Very." And then gave her a chaste kiss on the lips.

Despite his fears, she smiled up at him. "Careful. That's the second time we've kissed. It might become addictive," she playfully warned.

"I did say I must do that again," he reminded her with a waggle of his eyebrows. "Who's to say it won't happen again?" He then released his hold and bent to grasp her hand as usual. "Let's go home."

With a pleased joint smirk, they were on their way back towards the TARDIS.

o0o


	5. Chapter 5

**Part Five**

.

They had only just given Sylvia and Wilf the date of their upcoming wedding when there was a loud rap on the front door.

"Who on earth can that be, making a noise like that?" Sylvia wondered. "Donna, can you go and see who it is while I finish pouring out the tea?"

"Will do." Without thinking, Donna made her way to open the front door; half expecting to be presented with a package from a courier.

Instead, it was an angry looking Nerys on the doorstep. "What's all this about you getting married?" she demanded.

"Hello Nerys," Donna managed to get out. "Lovely to see you again."

"Never mind all that. I had to come to see for myself," Nerys declared and stepped into the house at a fast rate of knots. "Where's this bloke you've had hidden away?"

"Oi! Where the hell do you think you're going? Nerys!" Donna called after the woman now disappearing rapidly down the hallway towards the kitchen.

Lying in wait, the Doctor positioned himself in the doorway to halt her progress. "Hello, I'm the Doctor. I believe we've met before." He smiled his brightest smile in greeting.

Nerys gawped, first at him and then at Donna. "You ran off with him?! _Him_! The bloke who trounced your wedding to Lance using exploding Christmas trees!" She then chuckled a low, throaty laugh in reluctant admiration. "You dirty cow! I never would have pegged you as the type to get two men at once, let alone continue to string them along. How do you do it?"

Affronted, the Doctor spat, "I beg your pardon."

"Oh, you know what I mean," she dismissed him. "You look like an intelligent bloke, so tell me. What do you see in her?" Nerys pointed at Donna.

"Is that you, Nerys?" Sylvia called out as she peered around the Doctor, hoping to deter any unwanted scene.

"Hello Sylvia," Nerys returned the greeting. "I've just found out from Nicky the hairdresser who does Mandy next-door's hair that your Donna is engaged to be married, so I came right round to find out if it is true."

"Well, I might have said something," Sylvia apologetically aimed towards the Doctor. "It's not every day your only daughter gets married, and she offered to help me pick out an outfit next week."

"Mum!" Donna chastised.

"Sorry," Sylvia contritely apologised, "but it's out now."

"You mean you don't _mind_ about her and whatshisname?" Nerys questioned. "But I thought you hated the sight of him; and blamed him for Lance doing a bunk."

"Yes, I might have done," Sylvia reluctantly admitted, "but that's all changed now. And it wasn't his fault the other one disappeared. Turned out it was something else entirely. So I have to publicly apologise to the Doctor for saying those things. Sorry."

"Apology accepted. Thank you, Sylvia," the Doctor acknowledged.

"What, that's it? All is forgiven?" Nerys testily queried, eyeing them all individually. "Is this part of a secret filming thing for a television programme? It must be something like that because this don't feel right."

"Oh, it's very right," the Doctor calmly assured her, wrapping an arm around Donna's waist. "So if you want to come and help celebrate the marriage of my fiancée and myself next month, please come along. Bring the wife and your twins if you like. I'd love to meet them."

"This is weird," Nerys muttered to herself as she chose a seat and eased herself down on to it. "Yes please, Sylvia, I'd love a cup of tea if you've got one going spare. As for the wedding, I'll have to run it passed Nina first, but I think we should be able to come."

o0o

"Three down and now only UNIT to go," Donna commented. "I never thought I'd see Nerys cave like that, but you soon got her on your side."

" _Our_ side," the Doctor corrected her as he adjusted a dial on the TARDIS console. "Did you want to aim straight for our wedding day or were you intending to have that hen do with your mum the night before after all?"

"Well," she considered, stepping opposite him to lower a lever, "as Mum said, I am her only daughter and I don't intend to ever marry again after this."

"Quite right too," he retorted.

"Not like that, you prawn," she chastised. "But once we are divorced, I don't think I'll bother again."

She missed the hurt expression that briefly crossed his face. "Anyway, about the night before our wedding…?" he pressed for information.

"I thought we might as well go traditional and spend that night at Mum's," she continued. "Although, since we will be going to the registry office together in the morning, it doesn't really matter about sleeping in different places."

"Good," he agreed with some relief. "What did we want to do about our wedding night? Anywhere you fancy in particular?"

"Not really. I'm sure you'll rustle up somewhere different, but a gorgeous sunset would be nice."

"That's it?" he wondered. "No demand for… oh, I don't know… champagne, a beach, nice music, food and dancing?"

She shook her head. "I don't mind. Honest. Whatever you want. Don't know about you but sunning myself under strong heat next to a huge pool has rather lost its appeal lately."

"I'm sure I'll think of something," he confidentially promised while part of him slowly died. "Right oh then. On with the wedding!" With a flourish, he finished setting the coordinates that would take them straight the eve of their marriage.

o0o

The Doctor frowned in disgust. This was not his idea of having fun. A couple of Donna's friends had turned up unexpectedly and announced that they were going to have a girls' drinks night. They'd piled into the lounge armed with bottles of prosecco and various plastic objects he was sure he didn't want to know the function of; and proceeded to make every effort to embarrass him by quizzing Donna about their love life. And in front of Sylvia too!

He had never wanted to hide underneath a cushion before, and he hoped it would be the last. Nerys in particular seemed determined to make him blush until he combusted. But all Sylvia had done was smile whimsically and laugh at their dirty jokes.

A large part of him wondered if this was part of the human mating ritual, and he silently vowed to ask Donna about it at the first opportunity. With the aid of the gadgets they'd waved about in front of his face, of course. I mean, he liked a well-tuned appliance as much as the next man, perhaps a bit more, but some things should remain private and a secret between a male and his nightclothes; or wife.

Fortunately, Wilf had seen his plight, and prodded him out of the clutches of his captors by suggesting, "Come on, Doctor. Let's go meet Winston down the pub and have ourselves our own celebration." He then added to persuade him, "Just a quick jar or two. Nothing more."

"Go on. It'll do you good," Donna had whispered to him. "Have some fun with Gramps and make his day."

"Alright. But if anything happens, you're to contact me straight away," the Doctor had insisted; making all the other women "aw" in response.

When Donna had given him a quick peck on the lips to send him on his way, he thought the whole pre-nuptial arrangements were going quite well.

o0o

It had seemed logical to remove himself from the loud women who were trying desperately to be a bad influence on his fiancée and gain solace with a few fellow older men. However, offering to pay for drinks soon brings about other results when in the company of thirsty reprobates.

"What have you done to him?!" Donna near shrieked when she saw the state the Doctor was in when they eventually returned from the pub.

"Nothing," Wilf defended himself, trying to sit upright and missing the arm of the chair he sat in. "We only went out for a quick snifter to celebrate your upcoming nuptials. Nothing more than that."

"And doing that means getting him blind drunk?" she accused.

Wilf merely nodded. "Of course. It's part of tradition."

"I suppose I'm meant to be grateful he didn't get stripped naked and tied to a lamp post in the middle of the high street," she spat in anger. "How could you?! Don't you know how ignorant he is of these things?"

"Then it's about time he learned," Wilf argued, "seeing as he is joining our family."

Ignoring his ramblings, she leaned closer to the Doctor and poked him in the arm. "Doctor? Can you hear me? Are you able to talk?"

His eyes fluttered open and the expression on his face went swiftly from confusion to delight. "Donna? What are you doing in my bedroom? Come to join me?"

"No," she quickly denied in embarrassment, hoping her grandfather wouldn't remember him blurting that out. "We're at Mum's and you are lying on her living room floor."

"Why would I do that?" he wondered.

"You went out for a stag night drink with Gramps."

"Oh yes!" he happily recalled. "We're getting married tomorrow. Have I told you that?"

"Yes, I knew," she patiently replied. "Can you get up? I need to put you to bed."

"Cheeky!" he chastised in delight. "Your mother might find out about us."

Her eyes went wide. "Just what do you think Mum will find out?"

He whispered loudly into her ear, "We're a couple and we're getting married."

"Somehow I think she knows too," she answered, trying not to laugh. "Come on, up we go," she encouraged, placing her hands under his armpits to haul him onto his feet.

"I don't think it would be right for us to sleep together yet," he cautioned as he wavered about unsteadily. "Not legal or seemly." Then a thought struck him. "But if you want to sneak along later, I'm sure I can find space for you in my bed."

"Doctor!" she gasped in surprise.

"What?" he queried. "Whatsamatter? I love you. You love me. It's only natural to want to sha… To erm… that thing… thingy. Have I told your mother that? I really really really love you," he slurred. "You're my best friend ever."

"I'm sure she'll be very pleased to hear it," she retorted, heaving him sideways towards the stairs.

"No, I'm serious," he insisted, and then spoilt it by burping loudly in her face.

"It's not the only thing you are," she noted to herself. "Carry on with all this gush and I won't wish that you have a roaring hangover in the morning."

He leered cheekily at her and then murmured, "Won't be the only item that will be roaring first thing in the morning. Just you remember to come into my bed later. Okay." He waggled his eyebrows at her to add more meaning.

"That is enough of your blarney," she scoffed, now dragging him up the stairs. "Any more of this tosh and I shall leave you to sleep it off on the landing instead of a bed."

Him holding onto the bannister as they climbed the staircase both helped and hindered their progress upwards.

Sylvia appeared at her bedroom door to ask, "What's he been saying to you?"

Donna blushed beetroot red. "Nothing," she hastily denied. "Just drunk talk. You know the sort of thing."

"Yes," Sylvia answered with a knowing smile. "Make the most of it while you can."

o0o


	6. Chapter 6

**Part Six**

.

After a bit of a struggle, Donna used a gravity aided swerve to deposit the Doctor onto the single bed that took up most of the room in the spare bedroom, aka the box room. She smiled down at his prone body, pleased with her accomplishment. "There you go. All sorted. Get yourself undressed while I find a bowl, just in case you feel sick, and a large glass of water for you," she kindly ordered.

"I won't need them, Donna," he confidently assured her with a grin. He pointed a finger into his chest as he boasted, "Time Lord. My metabolism is superior to most species. A short sleep and all this alcohol will be out of my system."

"Are you really a Time Lord?" she scoffed. "I never knew that. You'd have thought you would have bothered to mention it to me by now."

She left him frowning in confusion, and she couldn't help giggling when he muttered to himself, "I'm sure I said it. Didn't I? Yes, I did, at least once in Pompeii."

Five minutes later she reappeared by his temporary bed, holding a large plastic bowl in one hand and a glass litre tankard filled with fresh cold water in the other. Fortunately, he had changed out of his clothing, she noted, saving her from that unwanted task. There's looking after your man, and then there's looking after your man as though he's a baby. Out of the two, she preferred the former, given a choice.

"Here you go," she cheerily declared as she placed the items by the top end of the bed where his head rested. "If you are sick, for God's sake aim for the bowl or I shall never hear the end of it. Ever. And drink some of this if you can't manage all of it," she insisted, tapping the water glass. "You'll feel the benefits in the morning."

"Morning?" he pathetically queried, gazing up at her with those puppy dog eyes he had perfected.

"Yes," she slowly and patronisingly drawled. "The wedding you were going on about earlier. It helps if you drink the water to prevent yourself from keeling over at the altar, or whatever you call the table thing they'll have."

"Will you be there?" he wondered.

"If you're lucky," she took great delight in saying.

"Does that luck run to you getting in here with me?" he invited.

She looked towards the bedroom door of her mother, hoping she wasn't listening in. "Not tonight. But if you're really good, we might be able to arrange something for tomorrow."

Satisfied, he laid back down beneath his covers. "Donna, before you go," he pleaded to halt her retreat from the room, "I just wanted to say…"

Leaning closer, she asked, "What?"

To her surprise, he grabbed her hand possessively. "Thank you for agreeing to marry me. You save me in so many ways. Did you know that? And I promise I'll be the husband you deserve."

"Will you now?" She lifted her eyebrow in disbelief.

"I will," he fervently vowed, and pulled her nearer. "But I have to ask you something? Something I need to whisper because I'm not sure your mum would understand."

"Okay, you've got my interest now," she commented and knelt down for him to gain some secrecy. "What is it you wanted to say?"

He brought his lips to her ear and whispered, "Are you expecting sex?"

"Doctor!" she exclaimed, and then shushed herself. "We'll also discuss that tomorrow," she cagily replied, tucking in the bedclothes around his neck to make sure he didn't suddenly leap out. "Daft Martian. I know what brought this on. Take no notice of what them lot were saying earlier. It's all part of the pre-wedding teasing and doesn't really mean anything. More like an initiation ceremony into the Marrieds Club, I suppose. There's nothing to worry about. Alright?"

"I'm always alright," he immediately answered.

"So you've said," she accepted, remembering that moment in The Library; and patted his shoulder. "Night night. Sleep tight. I'll see you bright and early."

"Bright and early," he sleepily repeated and then shut his eyes.

After placing a fond kiss on his cheek, she made her way to her own bedroom.

o0o

A couple of hours later, a healing sleep had done the trick of working the alcohol through his system; but there was another reason why he didn't usually bother to drink the stuff. It had unwanted effects upon his psyche. Ones that he could do well without.

After suffering and tossing about despondently for quite some time, the Doctor clambered out of his makeshift bed and headed for his fiancée. Nobody else was awake in the house at that ungodly hour, so he considered the risks of being found were worth the comfort he could gain.

Even if he had not known which door led to her room, he'd have easily found it by following her scent. Having cast a cautious eye abut to make sure he hadn't been seen, he slipped quietly into her bedroom.

"Donna," he softly but urgently whispered in the gloom.

In seconds she was sitting up in bed peering at him standing in his nightwear just inside her bedroom doorway. "Doctor, what's the matter? You'll get me shot if Mum finds you in here like this."

"Ah, sorry, so sorry," he hesitated, toying with the bottom edges of the front of his pyjama jacket. "Well, you see, I need you."

She would have dismissed him with a pithy reply but even in the glow from the street lamps outside she could detect the hint of tears in his eyes. "Has something upset you?" she gently queried instead.

It was enough sympathy to propel him forward, to the edge of her bed and the waiting promise within. "I was just thinking about what your mother said about me… when we announced our engagement, and then my thoughts wandered on to Jenny…" A sob broke up from his chest and through his mouth, shuddering his words to a halt in his throat.

"You shouldn't have drunk so much. It acts like a depressant," she correctly guessed, and threw back her covers in invitation.

She'd been through similar with him after Jenny died, and when they'd first got back home to the TARDIS after the events on Midnight. Those nights full of sobs and crying would haunt her forever.

"Please," he begged like a lost child, but she was already unbuttoning her pyjama jacket at her waist.

The unbuttoning stopped short of her revealing her breasts but exposed her stomach for his waiting attention.

"Aw. Come here," she offered; so he quickly removed his pyjama jacket.

She was not surprised in the slightest when he also took off his pyjama trousers, leaving him in just his underpants before he climbed into the bed, taking the spot beside her. The heat her body gave off was too much for him to cope with, was his usual complaint; and he gave this as the reason for the removal of his clothing. But there was no such mention of his naturally lower body temperature this time and his actions were silent except for his unbidden sighs.

As before when he'd laid in her bed, he placed his naked stomach against hers, desperately needing skin to skin contact, but it wasn't a lovers embrace he sought, despite being as intimate. Instead, he practically curled up in her lap like an oversized kitten, waiting for her to smooth her hands over his back and tenderly caress the sensitive area on his neck. With practised ease, she calmed the last of his trembling sobs until he lay in a trancelike state, on the edge of sleep, gently purring.

"My poor Spaceman," she sympathetically murmured as she stroked her fingers through his hair to massage his scalp. "So much pain and hurt. Let me take it all away for a while."

Expecting an answer, she was completely surprised when he remained quiet. Lifting his fringe out of the way, it was possible to see that he'd fallen fast asleep within her embrace, and she marvelled at this wonderful gift the universe had given her. It was the role of a lifetime.

Her place was now by his side offering comfort and unconditional love. It didn't matter that their relationship was platonic rather than the grand romantic one everyone seemed to idealise, or even the long-term relationship most people seemed to think they already had, because this is what it all boiled down to. Her fulfilling her role in life with him. For him. The last Time Lord and his companion, going on to save the universe for another day.

With that thought in mind, she drifted off to sleep.

o0o

"Donna...? Oh my gawd," Wilf muttered in shock when he opened her bedroom door the following morning with a welcoming cup of tea.

He'd instantly guessed that the mound under her duvet was the Doctor in bed with her. Previous to this moment, he had thought the absent Time Lord had gone for a stroll or something when he'd found his camp bed empty moments before, and had rather hoped it hadn't led here, to his granddaughter. Never mind. It was what young people got up to these days, he supposed.

For a horrified moment he thought they were having sex beneath the bedclothes, but fortunately there was no animated grunting going on, or heaving about under the covers. Just gentle snores. Worried that the Doctor might not be able to breathe, Wilf somewhat reluctantly pulled back the edge of Donna's duvet. If they were both naked under there, he intended to hastily drop it back in place pronto at the first sign of anything.

What he found wasn't quite so bad, but it was very puzzling. He saw the Doctor hugging Donna's legs as though she were a giant teddy bear. Gawd knows how he was breathing under there, and he must have been sweating like a pig, wrapped up like that, but there was no sign of any distress in the alien.

The chill air roused Donna first, and she blinked up at her grandfather in confusion. "Hello Gramps. Anything the matter?"

"No, sweetheart. Just brought you some early morning tea. Shall I get some for his lordship?"

She gazed down at the lump using her as a pillow, pinning her to the bed, and smiled fondly. "Yes please. Sorry. He had a bit of a bad night, so he came in here. I hope you don't mind us doing this."

"Not at all," Wilf readily answered. Who was he to deny the alien some comfort? Especially when the pair of them would be legally married by the end of the day. Although it wouldn't help if Sylvia knew about it, so it was best to keep things schtum. "Does he often do that? Anyway, I'll go get him a fresh cup right away."

"No, he doesn't do this often. Thanks, Gramps."

As she smiled her gratitude at him, Wilf thought he'd never seen her look so contented or beautiful. Marrying the Doctor was certainly doing her some good. "Won't be a moment," he told her, "and I'll put on some toast too."

o0o


	7. Chapter 7

**Part Seven**

.

"Morning! There's tea in the pot if you want some," Sylvia trilled from her seat at the table as soon as she saw her father enter the kitchen. She lowered her mug of tea from her lips to ask quietly, "Did he go in to her after all?" Tilting her head, she indicated the possible movements of the Doctor above.

"What? Err..." Wilf cagily dithered.

"It's alright," she assured him. "I knew he might. I heard him thrashing about in bed last night, all upset and yearning for her to comfort him," she explained. "And I know for a fact that they don't get up to anything despite him worshiping the ground she walks on. You just have to watch him to know he adores her; but the faces he was pulling last night before you took pity and dragged him out! You should have seen him! Mortified he was. It answered any lingering worries I might have had."

Now both pleased and relieved he could talk about it, Wilf readily joined her at the table. "He's up there hugging the stuffing out of her as though, if he let go, he'd drop through the ceiling. Yes, I heard his whimpers too in the night. Poor bloke. Must've had it harsh in his life to be like that."

Sylvia nodded sympathetically. Not knowing what else to add, she offered, "Do you want some toast and more tea?"

"Oh! I said I'd do that," he remembered.

"No, you sit there. You'd only make a mess," she insisted as she got up from her seat.

But Wilf could see through her bravado, and knew she wanted to fuss over them affectionately in the only way she knew how. "I'd love some, thanks," he accepted, sitting back in his chair. "The thing is," he began his thought, "I know it's obvious to us how much they love each other but is it clear as day to them?"

From her spot by the toaster, she scowled at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Donna seems frightened to show him she cares that much," he observed.

"That might be my fault," Sylvia guiltily replied, "since I haven't exactly welcomed him appearing with her in the past."

"But even so," Wilf argued, "all that's changed now. When you think about it, why don't we ever catch them snogging each other, or trying to do more? It ain't natural I tell you for an engaged couple of their age these days. And don't look at me like that! You know it's true. They're living together, for goodness sake, so it's not as though they have never had the opportunity to get up to anything in secret."

"Perhaps he is determined to be a true gentleman by considering her honour. Might be the true reason they wanted to get married as soon as possible," Sylvia reasoned.

"No, I don't think it is, because I found... Hello sweetheart," he instantly changed topic and tone as his granddaughter swept into the kitchen. "How are you feeling? Not too nervous, I hope."

"Morning," Donna greeted both of them, adding in a kiss. "A little bit nervous but you'd expect that."

"Is his lordship up yet?"

"I wish you wouldn't call him that. But anyway, he's in the bathroom and won't be long," Donna supplied. Relief filled her that they hadn't mentioned the little matter of the Doctor being in her bed. Yet.

"I'll put some more toast on," Sylvia stated. "You sit yourself down and rest. Dad, can you pour the tea out please?"

"Will do," Wilf readily agreed.

Feeling quite as her family bustled around her, trying to make her day the best it could, Donna deliberately wondered, "What time is the taxi booked for?"

The rest of breakfast was spent going over their final wedding details.

o0o

Standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting for Donna to appear should not have been nerve wracking. Nevertheless, the Doctor stood frantically adjusting his jacket sleeve around the new cuff links he'd been given as a wedding gift from his beloved. They featured a spider sitting on a star. Very apt he'd thought, and a lovely memento of the way they'd first met. And first married.

Well, sort of. If you wanted to look at it that way. Donna had teased him about the likelihood of carrying a wedding ring about in your pocket on the off chance you might suddenly need it. She'd even accused him of having it there waiting for the right moment with Rose.

Of course, he'd told her it was a mere coincidence that the TARDIS had put it in his pocket that very moment, that very second, he'd met Donna, rather than been carried about beforehand. It was almost as if the TARDIS were handing him Donna as a bride on a plate even back then.

Her scoff of disbelief both pleased and disappointed him. Yes, he wanted Donna to put him down when necessary, but he certainly didn't like the idea that she was harbouring misgivings about her status in his life. By the time he'd met Donna the second time he'd been long resolved with the idea that Rose was firmly in his past and that any romantic notion he might have formed about her would never be.

After all, if he'd been adamant about chasing after a love life, he could easily have gone back and lived such a life with Joan Redfern; but he hadn't. Had hardly given it any thought. Well, there'd been the odd daydream or two he'd allowed himself during his incarceration onboard the Valiant.

Best not to think about that time.

The good that had come out of it was that he knew what he wanted, here and now. Or rather, who he wanted. And he was marrying her that very morning. A happy accident, maybe, but he was welcoming the experience with open arms.

"Aren't you ready yet?" he called up the staircase.

"Just coming now," Donna huffed in return, clearly at the top of the stairs judging by the change in the volume of her voice. "They can't do the wedding without us."

"Yes, but we do have to actually be there," he retorted, and then caught sight of her in her wedding outfit as she descended the stairs, with Sylvia close behind. He gasped in appreciation, "You look lovely."

"You always say that," she dismissed coyly, and then smiled at him with quiet pride. "It doesn't look too much?" she sought to confirm.

He swept his gaze down to take in the view of the cream coloured jacquard dress and jacket ensemble she wore and grinned broadly. "Couldn't be lovelier," he assured her. "Beautiful, in fact."

She instantly swatted his shoulder. "Give over," she chastised in embarrassment.

"I only speak the truth, don't I, Sylvia?"

"He's right. You look lovely," Sylvia readily agreed.

"Wonderful," Wilf added in his two pennyworth as he joined them from the lounge. "Never seen you so radiant. Must be love," he reasoned.

"Well..." Donna blushed, not knowing whether to admit or deny it. Instead, she changed the subject. "Are we going to get in this taxi or what?"

The Doctor merely smirked, took hold of her hand to rest it on his arm, and guided her out to the waiting taxi.

When several neighbours turned out to be waiting outside to see them off with a cheer, she felt like the Queen.

o0o

It's a sham, she had to keep telling herself as they approached the registry office in the taxi. Trouble was, the way the Doctor held onto her hand and calmed her nerves seemed to contradict all that. It felt real. Too real. Even her mum and Gramps' smiles didn't quell the dread in the pit of her stomach.

What if the Doctor suddenly declared it was a joke set up with the help by his old friend the Brigadier? Or the wedding officiant turned out to be a blood-sucking alien out to kidnap the Doctor? Martha could appear, screaming it should have been her. Not that logic said it would be her but someone else entirely who popped up out of the blue to lay claim on him. Someone named Rose Tyler.

Spotting a young woman with blonde hair glaring at the taxi as it neared the council buildings made Donna instantly shudder.

"Are you alright?" the Doctor whispered into her ear, giving her hand a comforting squeeze.

She gawped at him for a second. "I thought I saw…," she began to answer, and then decided to dismiss it. "It's nothing. Just my imagination playing tricks on me."

"I double checked," he reassured her, "that nothing happens on this date in this vicinity to harm our wedding. I'm here to keep you safe."

That made her lift an eyebrow in amusement. "Are you sure about that?" she questioned.

"Well," he blustered. "As near to it as I can. But I promise that nothing untoward will affect today."

"Thanks." She smiled her gratitude at him as the taxi stopped. "It's showtime."

"Doing anything special?" he asked nonchalantly to make her laugh.

"Oh, you know," she answered in kind as he guided her onto the pavement. "Thought I might get married today."

He grinned; visibly preening himself. "Anyone I might know?"

"He's tall, devilishly handsome, apparently, and really clever. Not your every day genius type of clever either. So no, I don't think you know him at all," she teased.

"Shame," he replied. "Because I just might marry you myself."

"Can you hear him, Dad?" Sylvia commented to Wilf, giving his arm a nudge in delight as they walked through the doors that led to the registry office.

Wilf merely gave her a pleased smiling expression in return. He was too busy listening and revelling in the conversation between his granddaughter and his soon to be grandson-in-law.

Outside on the pavement, the blonde woman blinked out of existence; unseen.

o0o


	8. Chapter 8

**Part Eight**

.

It had been a simple enough ceremony. Sylvia openly cried, Wilf sniffed back a tear, and Nerys, Nina and the twins had clapped when the officiant had declared the Doctor and Donna legally man and wife.

The sun shone even brighter when the Doctor beamed a broad smile at his brand-new wife; and Donna had awarded herself one point compared to Professor River Song. Who was the wife now, huh? Or perhaps she could get away with two points, she wondered when he clasped her close in glee.

All that smug joy was wiped away when Nerys spat out in exasperation, "Well kiss her, then!"

Donna had turned her head to see several pairs of eyes staring at her in expectation. Okay, she had known this was part of the ceremony these days, but was the Doctor aware this was part of the deal too? She smiled shyly at him, ready with an excuse for when he didn't initiate a kiss. Cultural differences about privacy ought to cover it, she reasoned. But she hadn't been ready for the way he had regarded her, both excited and nervous at the same time. "I won't slap you," she whispered to allay his fears.

In answer, he had gently cupped her face within his long fingers and eased her head closer to his. When his eyes fluttered shut she prepared herself for one of those gross unwanted uncle-type kisses she used to receive as a child from adult males. It'd all be over in two seconds, she told herself. No need to get upset about it. Merely a touch provided by a friend, her very best friend, as part of the drama.

Then soft lips landed on her mouth, full of warmth and tenderness. With infinitesimal care, his lips moved against hers in a sweeping caress. Not too long time-wise, but certainly more than a friendly peck, she noted, and nowhere near as shocking as the kiss she had planted on him in a stately home kitchen, decades beforehand.

But it must have lasted slightly too long for some though because she heard Sylvia grunt a noise of disapproval; and then they broke apart, gazing at each other in stunned silence. Had he really done that, she asked herself. To her, in front of her immediate family? She could still feel the pressure he had used, it was practically engraved upon her lips, and it left behind a deep yearning within her to have such another kiss again. Foolish notion, she chastised herself. This charade was supposed to look convincing. Why else would he have done such a thing?

"Are you alright?" he had breathily asked in concern. His eyes raked over her face, looking for any sign of anger or disapproval that matched the one he could sense from his new mother-in-law. To his relief, he saw her almost glow with happiness instead. So he said the first thing that came into his head. "Thank you."

The glow switched off immediately, and most of the warmth of her smile left her eyes. "Any time, Spaceman," she murmured. Feeling his hands fall away from her face, she turned to her audience and declared, "I'm starving. Who else fancies something to eat? And I'm gasping for a cup of tea."

Sylvia smiled proudly at her daughter. "We've booked a meal for us all at The Ivy as me and Dad's wedding present to the pair of you. And they said we can take some photos outside in the gardens there."

"Mum, you shouldn't have done," Donna joyously acknowledged before hugging her mother and grandfather in gratitude. "Did you know about this?" she asked the Doctor.

He shook his head. "No," he answered. "I thought we were just going home for some tea and cake."

"You thought wrong," Sylvia delighted in saying. Her surprise was working out a treat. "We couldn't let you get away without celebrating your wedding properly. Nerys and Nina helped us plan it."

"I don't know what to say," Donna tearfully told her friends, and then hugged them too; adding in special kisses to the twins.

o0o

This is almost too good to be true, Donna thought as they stumbled in through the TARDIS doors some hours later. The lights had immediately increased in greeting, telling them that the TARDIS was very pleased to see them return hale and hearty.

"Hello Old Girl!" Donna called out and placed a fond pat on the nearest strut. "We're home, and not quite raring to go." She turned to study her husband; her brand new hubby. "I don't know about you, Doctor, but I am not only stuffed but I am officially knackered."

"You are also a little bit drunk, Donna," he informed her.

"Shhh," she dismissed him with a violent wave of her hand. "If you can't have a drink or two on your wedding day, when can you?" She set her beady eye on him. "Do you see me complaining about the amount you ate? Nope, not one bit. Then again," she reasoned, waving her hand at him in a different manner, "you could do with gaining a pound or two, unlike me. I'd better warn you – as your wife, I will be feeding you up quite a bit more."

"Will you?" he pondered, approaching her to throw an arm around her waist and steady her body. "All those other times you forced food onto me wasn't you feeding me up, I presume."

She gazed into his amused face. "Might have been. Something or other, can't remember what. Did you enjoy yourself today?"

"Very much so," he confirmed. "The meal at the restaurant was delightful, the twins were incredibly well behaved, there was no argument with Nerys or your mother, and as for your mum's neighbours… I hadn't expected them to throw a party like that when we got back to your mum's house. People have been awfully kind to us."

"All part of the package," she boasted, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "And I need to say: thank you for dancing with Mum. I know you don't normally do that sort of thing and how hard it is for you, so thank you. You're the best!"

"Okay, more than a little bit drunk," he noted, but grinned disarmingly at her anyway. "In normal circumstances you'd be making a joke about what I'm best at."

"Would I?" She frowned and squeezed him closer. "Are you sure that's me?"

"Mhmm." He would have said more, but she was pulling him further into an intimate embrace. One she might regret later. To add insult to injury, the TARDIS began to play some slow music in the background and Donna was swaying in time to it; enticing his senses. "Have you enjoyed today?" he deflected.

"Oh yes," she spoke directly into his ear, wafting her hot breath over his sensitive neck as she did. "I loved it. Thank you for making it so special. Even I was convinced for a second."

He had turned his head and was about to nuzzle into her neck when her words caught his attention. "Pardon?" he cried as he jerked his head away. "What….," he began to query and then he realised what she was saying. "Did I go too far?" he meekly asked.

"Nah!" she declared and laid her head upon his chest. "This is a Goldilocks moment."

"Goldilocks?"

She nodded before qualifying it. "Definitely. Not too soft, not too rough. This is just right. Tomorrow you'll be able to shove our wedding certificate under the nose of whichever bureaucrat issued that deportation notice and ram it down their throat with all the conviction you can muster to prove your right to be a British citizen."

Pain instantly knotted in his chest. "Do you think that's the only reason I did this?" he carefully asked.

"What other reason is there?" she sleepily argued. "I told you, I don't mind. I want to travel with you forever; and don't pretend that you don't know I said that to Martha because I'm aware you did. You've got the hearing of a dog."

"Time Lord, Donna," he haughtily corrected.

"Don't care, Doctor," she mimicked him. "Now take me to bed before I say something I regret."

"Oh?" He felt his mood lighten. "Are you going to profess your undying love for me?" he cheekily proposed.

"As if I'd do that," she denied. "Not me. Wouldn't risk it. You'd throw me out on my earhole as soon as look at me."

"I promise I wouldn't," he countered, giving her a tighter hug.

"And I'm a Dutchman," she scoffed. She then lifted her head and gazed into his eyes. "Not that I don't love you in my own way, you daft Martian, because I do. But I know you don't want romantic nonsense from me. My job is to be your companion for as long as I can."

"What if I want you for a whole lifetime?" he murmured.

"Then you, poor Doctor," she stated, using one hand to trail a finger along and then caress his jawline, "are lumbered with me." There was meaning here; she could feel it radiating from him. If only she could work out what exactly it meant. Oh well. It could all wait for another day. "On that note, I'm going to bed. Night night," she purred, and then surprised him by kissing his cheek. "You know where to find me should you need me."

"Donna," he bit out to halt her retreat. Her hand was still in his, so she hadn't completely escaped him. "This is our wedding night. Don't you think we ought to…?" His voice faded away.

"Ought to what?" she softly wondered. "Tell me what you want."

Taking in a deep gulp of air, he prepared himself to request, "Can I spend it with you?" When she didn't instantly reject him but listened to hear more, he stumbled on, "Together, properly, in the same bed. Please? I sleep so much better when I share your bed and we have the law on our side now."

"You dumbo," she gently gasped. "All this just to be allowed to sleep with me. What are you like? You could have just asked, but I know you and your propriety, so I won't say anymore. Meet you in a minute."

With a parting wink, she was gone.

o0o


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** Papa Lazarou is a creepy character from the BBC's "The League of Gentlemen", written by and starring Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Sheersmith. I'm going to assume you know who Rudolph Valentino was...

* * *

 **Part Nine**

.

The Doctor stirred next to Donna, stretching his long body before snuggling back into the same spot, wrapping himself around her in the bed. She thought he looked like the cat that had got the cream; and then that thought was confirmed when he began to softly snore like a kitten, purring for all he as worth. Aww, he's adorable, she let herself think for a moment. After all, you have to be careful when you live with a touch telepath, in case any stray thoughts escape to where they shouldn't go.

As he continued to sleep the sleep of the righteous, she smiled fondly at him; taking in the handful of freckles smattered over the middle of his face and the long dark eyelashes laying against his pale cheeks. Who could ever relate this gentle alien with the one who'd told those clam people, or whatever they had been really called, to get their act together or he _would_ make sure that they did? He'd meant it too. Scared half the planet in the end. He'd been that angry about the way they'd been carrying on.

Anyway. That had been before Midnight. Since then he'd lost some of his fierceness, not surprisingly. And that business with Professor River Song had really shook him up. Since then, he been extra careful with Donna herself, and this whole deportation business had blown up. If she didn't know better, she might have suspected he was frightened of losing her for reasons other than not wanting to travel on his own. You know: the romantic kind. I mean, a bloke offering to marry you on the spot is extremely rare. Your suspicions would be that he was some sort of Papa Lazarou getting you to bolster his harem, and not in a cosy Rudolph Valentino or 'Dessert Song' sort of a way.

That's a thought. _Did_ he have a harem, she wondered as she looked into the Doctor's sleeping face. First Rose, then Martha, and more recently River? She hadn't actually _seen_ him chatting up any other women while she'd been with him, unless Agatha Christie counted; and that had been in a totally fanboy sort of way. Whereas Martha had said he flitted off all the time. What had caused the change? Probably reached his quota, or something like that. Or Donna herself had broken the mould, as it were, by literally sitting on it. It was bound to be some mundane reason like that. When she eventually got the chance to talk to the infamous Jack, she hoped to be able to ask him such questions. She'd love to know how flirty the Doctor had been when Rose was around.

Or perhaps she didn't, she reconsidered, scrunching her nose up in disgust as she continued to gaze at his slumbering form. Would it spoil how she felt about him if she knew? Knowing he possibly acted like a lovesick idiot could be a right turn off. And how exactly would that look? Him being all gooey eyed. She couldn't imagine it.

But sometimes, when she caught him gazing at her when he thought she wasn't looking, he had such a soft expression on his face that spoke of pride and…. Friendliness. Yes, that was the word, she decided. Or fondness; that worked too. It meant she knew she held a special place in his life; and how could she not now that she was legally his wife? But sometimes, okay most of the time when she allowed herself to have an opinion, she wanted more.

That caused her to sigh deeply, and his eyes instantly fluttered open. "Anything the matter?" he hoarsely asked, licking his dry lips.

"Not really," she replied. "Just thinking about that letter and wondering what we should do next."

"Well," he drawled, "I don't know about you, but I was thinking of finishing our honeymoon first and then going to confront them with the evidence we shall create."

"Evidence?" she queried.

He loved the way she quirked her eyebrow at him. Not that he… cough… actually… anyway… "We will need to support our case by acting like a loving couple. Take a few photos, stuff like that."

"Photos," she cautiously repeated. With any other bloke she would have assumed they meant kinky or pornographic photographs, but this was the Doctor suggesting it, not a human red-blooded male. "What sort of photos were you thinking of?"

"Oh, you know," he airily responded. "Us visiting some famous sights, on a beach, just out and about enjoying ourselves. Like a normal couple are supposed to do."

"So us being normal but just taking photos as we go," she reasoned.

"Except," he began to argue, and steeled himself to make the suggestion, "that we should alsomaybekiss."

"Pardon? You said that a bit quick, and some of us don't have Time Lord hearing," she teased.

Okay. He hadn't got clean away with it, and he'd have to say it again. And risk being thumped. "We should also kiss," he stated more slowly. "In public, for everyone to see." There, that had underlined his argument. It was reasonable, wasn't it? He tentatively gazed at her briefly to see if she agreed.

To his surprise, she nodded. "Yes, we have to be convincing. Are you going to be alright doing that?"

"Erm" He made a show of thinking about it, glancing upwards at the ceiling. In his head, the TARDIS tinkled in laughter, so he scowled at her mentally for teasing him so. "I think I can be. We won't find out until we try. Are you alright about us kissing?"

Oh! She hadn't expected him to actually ask. "I think as long as we aren't daft about it then we should be fine."

Something in her tone was a little bit off. "Are you suggesting we make it a challenge?" he wondered.

Seeing a way out of this suddenly awkward situation, she answered, "It could be. Yes. The challenge being who can gush the most without laughing."

He grinned with delight. "Then, Donna Noble, you're on! Meet you in the console room in twenty minutes."

"What about breakfast?" she griped. Then again, had she really hoped for breakfast in bed, on her honeymoon? Silly her.

"I'm taking you out for breakfast," he declared as he got up. "Somewhere beautiful and romantic."

"The Watford Gap service station up the M1 then," she joked as she also clambered out of bed. "Should have known."

"For you, my darling, anything," he delighted in saying and causing her to laugh. Yes, this had great potential if he played it right.

o0o

Staying Earthcentric for their photos, he took her to Vienna first for breakfast, to enjoy the architecture and all the 'Sound Of Music' sights, of course. Playing tourist had never been so much fun. Especially when sharing dainty kisses for public viewing.

The Northern Lights in Tromsø meant lots of snuggling, unusual views of the constellations in the sky, and hot chocolate kisses in front of a roaring fire. And a night sleeping wrapped up in animal hides. Local reindeer, in particular. "Snug as a bug in a rug," Donna had said, and he had to agree with her.

When she requested somewhere warmer, he took her to the Grand Canyon for the trip of a lifetime in a helicopter, apparently. He'd flown in better, but that wasn't the point. They were seeing and being seen. And yet he yearned for somewhere that could provide a different type of intimacy away from the crowds.

So he had taken her to a near-deserted beach in the Maldives. One that would happily grace any exclusive travel brochure. Her squeal of delight when he revealed he had arranged a night's stay in one of the beach huts on stilts went straight to places other squeals did not reach. The clear blue water, white sands and tropical sun was too much for her to resist; so she quickly disappeared to change into a swimming costume.

"See that suit," she informed him, pointing at his clothing in disgust, "I want to see you out of it and wearing swim shorts within the next minute or I shall personally rip it off you!"

"You wouldn't dare!" he haughtily reposted.

"Oh yeah? Do you want to risk it, Time boy?" She set her beady eye on him. "This time you _will_ fit in and change."

"Yes dear," he muttered as he turned to obey; but secretly he was extremely pleased.

As time had marched on, their kissing game had got more interesting, and the length of those kisses had gradually grown. He was almost wriggling with excitement as he prepared to meet her on that isolated beach.

Seconds later he saw her shyly adjusting the fall of a bikini. "I see you were prepared to dress for the opera," he joked.

"Don't push it, you," she retorted, but laughed anyway. She just couldn't seem to stop herself lately. "Who would have thought you have proper legs under your trousers," she teased to change the subject.

"These old things," he pondered, looking down at himself. "You've seen them before."

"Yes, but not in the light of day," she countered. "You should put some decent sun cream on them."

Time for a boast, he thought. "No need to, Donna. Time Lord."

Unimpressed, she rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Idiot! If you burn to a crisp, don't come running to me for sympathy."

Ignoring that, he requested, "May I escort my wife down to the water?" He held out his hand in invitation.

Taking it, she allowed, "You may, but no holding your breath underwater for ages and scaring the living daylights out of me again."

"I said I was sorry for that time in the TARDIS swimming pool." He prettily pouted, so she deliberately kissed him.

"You are such a tart at times," she joyously proclaimed.

"At least I'm your tart," he happily agreed, and pulled her close to kiss her properly; more intimately.

Was this a dream? she wondered. If it was, she never wanted it to end. Those kisses of his were addictive, and she feasted on them.

But they couldn't last forever; so they raced each other into the water, to frolic about.

Yet there had been the promise of more in those tender kisses. A promise of love that was shared long into the night.

All too soon, they were racing back up the beach, hand in hand towards the TARDIS. "Where to next, dear husband of mine?" she breathlessly asked.

He drew her closer to admit, "I was thinking of celebrating our honeymoon by taking you to Shan Shen. You'd love it. Very exotic, wonderful aromas, excellent food, and it's New Year there."

"Then what are we waiting for?" she wondered.

o0o


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:** I'm ignoring most of canon to focus on more personal matters

 **A/N2:** more importantly: Happy birthday **dm12** and **helloprilly** and belated one to **darkranger**!

* * *

 **Part Ten**

.

Allowing her to enter the TARDIS ahead of him gave the Doctor plenty of opportunity to admire her figure in the flattering bikini she wore. It was rare that she ever wore less than several layers of oversized clothing like a protective shell, so to see her in almost her naked state was quite a compliment to the trust she had in him. Obviously, he was seen as neither a threat nor a sexual predator; and he intended to keep it that way, no matter what his hormones were demanding he do next.

But when she turned her body and his gaze inevitably went low to consider her assets, the gentle swell of her feminine stomach caused a gasp of anticipation to escape his lips. What wouldn't he do to be able to see her ripen with child; his child? It would be a miracle if it happened, but the possibility of a Gallifreyan-human child between them could not totally be ruled out. After all, Leela had managed it once, long ago.

In response to his gasp, to his horror, Donna quickly turned her body away from his view and she padded way across the iron grating that formed the walkway around the console, her flip flops squeaking nineteen to the dozen in her haste to hide away.

"Where are you going?" he forlornly cried out.

"Nowhere," she insisted.

But he could clearly hear the trace of a sob in her voice, so he rapidly followed. Taking a gentle hold of her arm to stop the retreat, he told her, "Don't hide from me. Please don't."

"I'm only doing you a favour," she mumbled, keeping her gaze away.

"By not allowing me to see your beautiful body? I think not," he scoffed.

Angry eyes targeted him in response. "You don't have to lie about me while we're in here. It doesn't count in our 'let's convince the universe' game!"

"What happened to our never lie to each policy?" he countered. "You think your body offends me, don't you?"

"Maybe," she quietly confessed.

"That is far from the truth," he started to explain, feeling bolder about this than he had ever been before. She needed his reassurance. In fact, she craved it, and by golly she was going to get it. In bucket loads. "Shall I tell you what I was thinking just now?" Her head jerked upwards to visibly dare him to say anything nasty to her. "I was thinking how you were made to be a mother, how natural a state it would be for you, and how much I wish you could have my child. Be the mother to my children, because you would be even more beautiful then."

She was stunned. Utterly and completely. He had said what? Was this because he knew it was her secret dream now long thrown away? So she ineffectively murmured, "Me?"

He nodded and drew her into a comforting hug, pulling her close enough to rest his head in the crook of her neck. "And before you ask, I'm not trying to replace her with another child but..." He drew in a steadying breath, feeling the grief swell up again. "I suddenly want our child, to heal the past and form a future with you. Sorry if that's not what you want too."

"Daft Martian," she crooned, kissing the part of his cheek she could reach and smoothed a hand over his back to pat him tenderly. "I just thought that ship has long sailed where I was concerned. But yes, I want to have your child, more than anything. And we'd tell them all about their sister Jenny and the rest of them. Because that way they'll live on."

"Thank you," he sobbed, crushing her for a second before recomposing himself again. He slightly pulled away to declare, "Right. New plan. We go to the market on Shan Shen to buy some stuff for a Gallifreyan baby ritual. Things like robes, amulets, and special foods to eat while chanting the birthing mantra. It pays to be prepared. Jenny didn't get all that, but we can carry out the ceremony on her behalf."

Her eyes shone with pride, love and compassion for her husband. "For Jenny," she softly stated.

"We go to Shan Shen to buy some goodies," he sort of repeated, "go visit your family, get this deportation business sorted out and then..."

"And then?"

"We come back to the TARDIS to create our own family. What do you say?"

Without any consideration, she answered, "Yes. I say yes. I like the plan. But I do have a question."

"Oh?" He waited patiently for her to ask the inevitable.

"Apart from us saying we'd never mate, which I think we can safely ignore now, can you actually, erm…?" she began to ask. "I know you've been married before but that was probably centuries ago. Are you capable of doing it, or do we go the turkey baster route? No doubt a more sophisticated version but the same method nevertheless."

"Oh Donna." He grinned and leaned forward to initiate a sweet kiss. "It's been a while since anything remotely like that has happened, and I want to be completely honest with you. I had a dalliance when I was stuck without the TARDIS on Earth once, with Madame de Pompadour."

"The mistress to the king of France Madame de Pompadour?" Donna quizzed in awe. "How far is a dalliance exactly? Hang on, I don't want to know. Are you free of the pox? I mean syphilis or something equally horrible. Because I ain't touching you if you are."

"No, I'm all clean." He held up his hands in surrender to prove his innocence. "My Time Lord metabolism would have dealt with that at some point during the last three years if I'd picked anything up."

"Talk about a mood killer," she mumbled in disgust. The thought of him and some upper-class tart make her feel sick for a moment; and then she remembered roughly when that could have happened to him. "So you went off with her during the time Rose travelled with you?" she half questioned in amazement. Well, that answered that lingering question about him flitting off after other women. Even the venerable Rose hadn't had him stop being interested in other women. Who'd have thought?! And she decided she would have to share this information with Martha at the first opportunity. "How did your Rose take that?"

He sniffed in defence. "She had Mickey," he countered.

"Not well at all," she surmised. "Anyway, about this French mistress."

"Reinette," he supplied.

Okay, that gave it more meaning if he was defending her, but at least he was supplying information like a repentant cheating husband. Which he was; at a stretch. "How far exactly did you and Reinette go?" As his face turned thunderous, she quickly tacked on, "I'm only asking because you obviously didn't do things the human way on Gallifrey, so I'm really asking how much you know about human mating."

The dark expression vanished to be replaced with understanding. "A reasonable amount. I think it is enough to know how to give pleasure."

"Look...I don't care what Madame de Pimp-the-whore did to you," she dismissed. "And quite frankly I don't want to picture it either."

"Are you jealous, Donna Noble?" he gleefully wondered. "Because I think you are, just a little bit."

"In your dreams, mate!" she spat.

"Oh, you are," he hoarsely whispered, wrapping her up into an intimate embrace. "My beautiful ginger wife wants me all to herself. And I am. All yours."

"You're just saying that to shut me up," she gasped between kisses. "For all I know, you've secretly married half the whole known universe."

"No, I am giving you the universe and everything you could ever desire."

"Don't go thinking you can promise me Johnny Depp and get around me like this."

"I thought it was working," he playfully murmured. "Come on. Let's go buy something pretty."

o0o

Things had been getting harder between them in all sorts of ways during those fleeting halcyon honeymoon days. Their game with the kissing challenge was causing all sorts of yearning and wishing to happen in secret. And some of it hadn't been secret enough, yet deliberately ignored anyway.

Donna had been barely able to let go of him as they walked through a market on Shan Shen. It had taken all her willpower to force herself to let go and spend some time alone while he went to find a particular treat he wanted to surprise her with later.

And then she had stepped into that fateful tent.

What seemed like months later, she screamed her way back into reality and frightened the slave of the Trickster's Brigade.

"You're still alive!" she had cried on seeing the Doctor swoosh into the same tent. "Thank God!" No way could she have stopped from hugging him tight, winding her body around his in sheer delight.

"Woah! What's all this nnnnnrghhhh," he mumbled out as her lips landed on his.

But she was determined to make the most of him now that she had him back. Sod the beetle, and sod what ever that blonde had wanted her to pass on, she couldn't give a monkey's about them. What she did want was her husband. Now.

"What I said earlier to you," she began once they were back in the TARDIS, "I don't care what you did to with Madame de Pump-'em-up because it's me now, Sunshine. You and me."

She then launched herself at him.

"You're being more than a little bit forceful, Donna," he pointed out.

"Can you blame me?" she wondered as his tie went west.

"Erm. Not really," he readily agreed. "Oh Donna, I want you."

Okay, she had to agree, a vital part of him was confirming the ability answer to her previous question. Quite firmly too. Yep, he was rocking and rolling. Even without his hands firmly on her bottom she would have known, but it was nice to confirm it for herself by smoothing her own hands all over his pert behind. Very nice. But her breath was taken away when he moved one of his hands and cupped her breast. The saucy minx! He must have been dying to do that for ages, judging by his happy sigh.

"Same here, Spaceman. Now stop talking and start doing."

"Yes dear."

o0o

A lot had happened in the following few hours, once she'd remembered a detail of her 'trip'. Lots of running, the Earth kidnapped, faces seen from the Doctor's past, and weird space cops dressed up as rhinos. But it was the creeping dread that scared Donna the most when they eventually found and landed back on the surface of planet Earth.

As before, the details of her time in an alternative universe were hazy at best, and yet she fought to bring those memories to the surface in order to help him solve this riddle.

There was a flash of light in the gloom of a deserted London street behind him as he asked her yet again, "What did she say to you in that alternate universe?"

Now finally recognising a distant figure, she smiled enigmatically. "Why don't you ask her yourself," she suggested, tipping her head towards the young blonde who had just materialised at the end of the road.

Confused, he turned to look where she meant, and spied the girl running towards him. "Jenny?!" he gasped out in shock; and began to run.


	11. Chapter 11

**N/A:** a little bit of backstory that may not be as accurate as it could have been because I couldn't be bothered to re-watch Rose's episodes.

* * *

 **Part Eleven**

.

The first thing Jenny had noticed when she woke up in the Messaline assembly hall was that the pain had gone. There was nothing. Absolute zilch. The next thing she observed was that she was alone except for Cline who was gawping at her in shock.

"You were dead," he stuttered out.

She pressed a hand to her chest and could feel her hearts beating perfectly fine. "And now I'm back," she confirmed smugly as she climbed off the table. "Where's Dad?"

"They've gone," Cline started to explain but a suddenly flash of light startled him into silence.

A woman faded into view. Older than her, Jenny surmised, but probably younger than Martha. Dressed in a short blue leather jacket and black trousers; and wearing a scowl on her face as she flicked her blonde hair about.

The woman looked straight at Jenny and Cline and demanded, "Where is he?"

"Who?" Cline inevitably asked.

"The Doctor," the woman stated as though he was an idiot. "It says he should be right here." Using a nod of her head, she indicated towards a circular device she held in her hand.

Intrigued, Jenny stepped closer. "You seek the Doctor? Why does your weapon say he is here?"

"It's not a weapon," the woman answered. "It's a dimension cannon jumper, locked onto his DNA. If he isn't here, is Donna around here somewhere?"

"Does it detect her DNA too?" Jenny wondered. Quite reasonably, she thought, but the woman's scowl turned to annoyance.

"I'll have to try again if she's not here," the woman commented, and lifted her hand to press something.

"Wait!" Jenny begged, managing to halt the action. "I seek them too."

"Why?" the woman cautiously asked. "The Doctor, once he leaves somewhere, he doesn't go back," she tried to kindly supply to stop the girl in front of her from expecting him to. "I have to find him."

Jenny edged nearer. "What is he to you?" This woman didn't smell the same as her father, so she obviously wasn't kin.

"Me and him," she began to say and then coyly stopped to let the unspoken imply a great deal more.

Tilting her head in confusion, Jenny set her beady gaze on the woman, unable and unwilling to think her father had a meaningful relationship with one such as her. "The Doctor cannot form such a relationship. There are laws against it." Okay, she didn't know that for certain, but she felt sure that, if it had been possible, her father and Donna would have formed a couple together.

"Who are you?" the woman commanded.

"More importantly, who are you?" Jenny countered, reaching forward to examine the 'dimension cannon' the stranger had proclaimed had got her there.

The room around them melted away to reveal a stark, brightly lit room. Jenny instantly shielded her eyes, having never seen such illumination before.

"Rose?" someone male asked in shock. "Why did you bring her back with you?"

"Sorry Dave. It was an accident. She came through with me," Rose apologised and then set her attention on a man sitting at a desk containing instruments Jenny did not recognise. "Have you calculated the next point yet? I have to reach the Doctor."

"We can't get you there for a while," he answered, and tapped a few buttons on the terminal in front of him. "But we have a fix on him."

Jenny stood agog, taking it all in and processing the new information.

"Where?" Rose excitedly wondered and leaned over him to look at the screen he examined. Seeing a figure she knew all too well, she asked, "Can I communicate with him?"

"Be my guest," Dave offered, and stood to let her take his seat.

Pressing an audio switch, Rose called out, "Doctor! It's me, Rose." When he didn't notice, she tried louder, to no avail. "Doctor!" she shouted, thumping the screen in frustration. "It's me. Doctor! Look at me, please look at me!"

But it was clear he could neither hear her nor sense she was trying to communicate with him.

"Doctor," Rose brokenly cried.

"The signal isn't strong enough," Dave cautioned her. "Give it a while to build and then we can break through now that we've found the right universe." He then eyed Jenny still standing where they'd left her. "What about your new friend? Any idea what we do with her?"

"She says she's looking for the Doctor too," Rose proclaimed.

"Another girlfriend of his?" Dave joked.

"No!" Jenny's stern answer shook both of her audience. "You're his girlfriend," she sneered at Rose.

"Yes. Who did you think it would be?" Rose snapped back.

"Well, Donna, of course," Jenny honestly replied; and was further confused when Rose burst into laughter. "Then why do you seek to find Donna?"

"To get to the Doctor. That's all I care about. We belong together," Rose explained.

Horrified, Jenny flung a hand behind her to find something solid to cling onto. It was all too clear to her, to get to her father she would have to utilise these aliens' technology, but that meant travelling with Rose when her instincts told her to tear the blonde apart, limb from limb. "Right," she mumbled.

She then found Rose's attention alighted on her, and wasn't best pleased when she heard, "The dimension cannon led me straight to her. Just think. She could be what we need to focus the energy onto the Doctor."

The technician delicately coughed. "Have you considered why she might be such an excellent focal point?"

"She contains some vital DNA," Rose reasoned out. "Perhaps she is Donna's daughter? Yes! she can lead us straight to her!"

"Are you related in any way to Donna?" the technician asked Jenny.

Cautiously nodding, Jenny had to admit to herself that she probably was; and the enormity of realising she had a mother after all gladdened her hearts. How that was so would have to be figured out later. "Yes."

Rose almost clapped her hands in glee. "Normally the Doctor takes the daughter rather than some old mother, but we can use this to our advantage. I can get back to the Doctor and you can have your mother back. What's your name?"

"Jenny," she supplied.

"Come on, Jenny. We'll go find something to eat and then we've got work to do," Rose offered.

The thought of food had Jenny's mouth watering. She'd only had a few basic rations so far, and a terribly sweet item her father had called a Jelly Baby. So she smiled her friendliest smile and let Rose take her to a refreshments area.

o0o

This human food wasn't too bad, Jenny thought as she bit into what Rose had told her was a cake. It was very sweet whatever it was, but she could see why it would be considered a treat. Sipping from her drink of water, she eyed Rose cautiously and decided that it would be best if she kept her talking. The more information the better. "Tell me, how did you meet the Doctor?"

It was as though a light lit up inside the girl, and she talked endlessly about her life since meeting him that fateful day in Hendriks.

Jenny was astonished to find out that her father had changed face during his time with this human; going from a 45-year-old man to a 35-year-old looking one. Could he do so again she wondered, and it saddened her to hear how much care Rose had taken to abandon her lonely mother. Yes, she had plenty of questions to ask her father... _Her parents_ , she mentally and gleefully amended, when she eventually found them.

"Why were you unable to communicate with the Doctor today?" she asked after Rose's long explanation.

Rose snorted in disgust. "He's too far away for the signal to work, and something within the planet atmosphere was interfering with any communications. Never mind. Next time should work if I can't jump through to his dimension. But at least we now know, thanks to you, that we definitely have the right one so thanks for that."

"You're welcome," Jenny replied, wondering how she had actually helped. All she'd done so far was die and come back to life, according to Cline. This world continued to be a lot brighter and more chaotic in content from her birth one. Fortunately, Dave had loaned her a pair of sunglasses he'd had on him. "When do we go back to the dimension cannon?"

"In a couple of days," Rose promised. "It'll take quite a while to refocus it. You must be eager to see your mum again."

"I am," Jenny confirmed. "I can hardly wait."

"In the meantime, you can meet mine, if you like," Rose offered. "I'm sure she'd love to fuss all over you."

All Jenny had to do to that was smile.

o0o

"Hello," Jackie eagerly greeted her. "Rose tells me you've met the Doctor."

"I have," Jenny agreed. "I hear you have too."

"Oh yes," Jackie sighed. "There are many things I could moan about that man for, but he gave me back Rose. He made sure she could get here with me."

Rose didn't look too impressed about that.

"My mother travels with him," Jenny supplied.

"Does she?" Jackie gasped in surprise. "He's changed his tune. Couldn't wait to get rid of me, the pair of them, when she travelled with him."

"Mum," Rose admonished.

"It's true," Jackie insisted. "Sent me off to get some bits one time and had vanished in his TARDIS by the time I returned loaded with bags full of stuff. I was well miffed, I can tell you."

For the next few days Jackie entertained Jenny, and generally took the opportunity to fuss over someone new, but Jenny desperately wanted to get back to the room that held the dimension cannon; and that meant joining Rose.

o0o

What she saw when she eventually got there and was taken on a trip shook her a great deal. "Why the hell is my mum in such a dark depressing place without the Doctor?" she demanded of Rose. "She didn't even recognise me!"

"It's alright; it ain't real," Rose defended herself. "Just a side blip but we have to get Donna out of there and back to where she belongs."

"And how are you going to do that?" Jenny wondered.

"Wait an hour or so, and I'll show you," Rose enigmatically replied.

But Jenny sighed in disgust when she saw the place Rose eventually led her to. In front of them stood a blue box that silently screamed in agony, begging Jenny to release it from its pain. "That's a…?"

"The Doctor's TARDIS in this universe," Rose named it for her. "It's dying. Do you want to look inside?"

Barely able to nod, Jenny was shown the dismantled TARDIS, and the wires that led outside to a circle of mirrors. In horror, she watched Donna being brought in to stand within the display and sent to confront her former self. She kept silent until she was zapped with Rose to witness Donna stepping bravely into the path of a large lorry; but hearing the dying breath of her mother tore a reaction from her.

"You let her die! And for nothing but a stupid message!" Jenny raged.

"It had to be done," Rose disagreed. "This way the Doctor will know it was me."

Before she was even aware of the action, Jenny yelled, "Murderer!" And punched Rose hard in the face, knocking her to the ground. "You selfish, hateful child!" Jenny spat at the prone woman and snatched up the dimension jump she'd held. "Think yourself lucky I haven't killed you on the spot. My father taught me to ignore that impulse."

It was only then that Rose thought to ask, "Who is your dad?"

But Jenny never answered her. She had blipped out of that reality.

Having returned to the dimension cannon room, Jenny raced forward to Dave's station and seemingly pressed several buttons at once.

"Oi! What are you doing?!" he cried.

"Making sure she doesn't follow me," Jenny retorted, and drew in a satisfied breath when she'd finished. "Thanks Dave, you've been a star." With a brief kiss pecked on to his cheek, she was gone and headed towards her parents' universe.

o0o


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** many thanks to the delightful **Shivver** for encouraging me with this one.

* * *

 **Part Twelve**

.

The dimension jump should not have been able to work again so quickly, Jenny realised as she materialised on a different planet. Patting her pockets, she was grateful to find a second dimension jump in the front of her jeans. That solved that mystery. Now on to the oncoming crisis.

Ahead of her was a blue box, like the one she'd seen in the parallel universe, except this time it was singing in her mind, full of joyous song as it greeted her. Doing her best to mentally reach out to the sentient being, Jenny was told to run towards it as quickly as possible because danger was about. Seconds later, she spotted a familiar and much yearned for figure standing outside the TARDIS.

Jenny took off Dave's sunglasses and ran towards the Doctor. "Dad!" she called out in excitement.

"Jenny!" he cried in equal elation. "My Jenny!"

"Well go on then," Donna encouraged so he set off at a fast rate of knots.

"Jenny, oh my Jenny," he almost sobbed in happiness as he clasped her to his chest. "Look Donna, it's Jenny."

A single shot rang out from somewhere and the Doctor immediately hit the deck.

"Dad!" Jenny squealed.

"Doctor!" Donna cried at the same time in horror as she reached them on that cold deserted street.

"Been hit," he gasped out through clenched teeth. "Badly."

"Don't die, please don't die. I've only just got here and found you," Jenny begged.

"Tell us what to do," Donna fervently requested as she pressed her hands against the wound. "I know you'd do this for humans, but does it work for you lot?"

"I'm so sorry," he mouthed to her, and turned his head to gaze at someone who had just zapped in beside them. "Jack," he groaned.

"What?" Donna turned to look too and mumbled, "Does everyone who has met you get their own transmat system?" She then hushed herself. "Sorry, wrong time for that sort of question."

"Quick, get him into the TARDIS," Jack ordered, and then assisted them in moving him inside.

"It's starting," the Doctor observed as they laid him down on the grating and golden light fizzed across the back of his hand.

"What? What's starting?" Donna asked, clearly confused.

"When we die, our species can heal itself thanks to regeneration. Rose told me about it," Jenny answered the unspoken question. "We completely change face and body."

"But you didn't do that. We waited for ages," Donna complained. "So how come you're here looking the same? I don't get it."

"I revived thanks to the Source. The terraforming chemicals brought me back to life," Jenny explained.

"Stand back," Jack warned them, peeling them away from the Doctor's prone body.

"But he can't," Donna pathetically pleaded. "We've only just got married. I'll be widowed, again."

"You got married?!" Jenny grinned at her with almost a happy smile.

"Yeah, it sort of came up," Donna defended them, not knowing why she felt the need to. "For legal reasons."

"Donna," the Doctor groaned as he dragged himself to his feet.

Thinking he was telling her off for a second, Donna added, "It was all above board."

"No, I..."

"Don't look," Jack advised and pulled both women into his protective hug, shielding them with his body. "Good luck, Doctor."

There was a bright flash of light as the Doctor was engulfed in flames for a few brief seconds, and then he was staggering backwards, adjusting his tie.

"You look exactly the same," Jenny noted in surprise.

"Why would I change? Just look at me," he smugly commented, and then broadly smiled at her in triumph. "All I had to do was syphon off the excess energy into my spare hand. That spare hand there." He pointed under the console.

"The spare hand that did all the bubbling before we found Jenny?" Donna sought to confirm.

"That's the one."

"I used it as a Doctor detector for quite a while before he insisted I give it back," Jack supplied conversationally.

"Were you stalking him? Because I hope you weren't," Donna warned.

"No, Red. Nothing of the sort."

"Good, because we've already had enough of that with whatsherface," Donna grumbled. "Rose."

But the Doctor wasn't paying much attention to their conversation, he was too busy hugging his long-lost daughter.

Standing watching them was a bit awkward though. "You can hug me if you like," Donna offered Jack.

A glare aimed in his direction made him reply, "I don't think I'd better. Your husband might object."

"That means I'm off the shelf in all sorts of ways now," she commented to herself. "Isn't that wizard. Right, proper introductions." She stuck out a hand for Jack to shake. "I'm Donna. Donna Noble."

"Did we agree you'd use just Noble?" the Doctor asked as he released his tight hold on Jenny.

"Well I'm certainly not using Smith, or even Smith-Noble, since it's not your real name, so I'm sticking with the one I've got, thank you very much."

"Oh, come on," he tried to win her round, crooning as he wrapped her into a hug. "There must be room for me in there somewhere."

"Only if I become Dr Noble," she reluctantly allowed. "Unless you want to go back to being called that instead; otherwise no, I'm not using some weird alien name."

"But Donna..."

"No," she maintained despite his schmoozing.

"Definitely married," Jack remarked to Jenny who watched them with delight.

"And you are stopping me from properly greeting Jenny, you git," Donna playfully admonished the Doctor.

"Mum," Jenny sighed as she felt Donna tug her into a much-wanted embrace.

"Mum?" she slightly pulled away to ask.

Jenny eagerly nodded. "You're my mother. The dimension cannon proved it, when it used both Dad and your DNA to focus in on me, and vice versa. It used me to find you in that parallel universe where Dad died, Rose ripped apart a TARDIS for you to time travel, and I was there when you stepped in front of the lorry and died."

Donna gasped as images formed in her head. "I remember bits of that."

"Why did you step in front of a lorry?" the Doctor wondered from his hastily broken greeting with Jack.

"It was the only way to stop myself from turning right and never meeting you, causing your death. Rose said I had to die."

Jenny nodded her agreement.

The Doctor frowned. "But why would..."

He never got the chance to finish his line of questioning, because the TARDIS was captured within the chronon loop of a large Dalek vessel. Soon they were on board the Crucible facing imminent death for the whole universe and beyond.

o0o

It had been Jenny who silently offered her strength to the Doctor as he cried out in anguish for the Daleks to release his wife and the TARDIS, as they watched them plummet into the zed neutrino core, to burn up and die moments later. Her hand in his had been his only comfort during those dark moments, feeling the rest of his life burn away from existence.

It had also been Jenny standing there after the 'dead' Jack had been carted away by the Daleks, and Martha appeared on their screen with her threat to blow up the Earth. "You found her," Martha had murmured on seeing an alive Jenny; and she was pleased for her former love that he had found his piece of reason to carry on living. Especially when she had then inevitably asked, "Where's Donna?"

"She's..." The Doctor gave a sniff, unable to say the words yet, but grasped Jenny's hand more forcefully.

It said everything Martha needed to know until later explanations could be made.

But inside the TARDIS, things were going a little differently for Donna too.

The heartbeat she had been hearing all day, steadily increasing in volume, called out to her more vividly once the TARDIS doors had snapped shut, confirming her doom. Following the sound led her to the spare hand under the console, bubbling agitatedly away in its embalming fluid.

It was as if it was speaking to her, begging for help, and she involuntarily reached out to touch it, offer a crumb of comfort and affection as the world around them boiled away to nothing. She even thought the words, ' _Don't worry, sweetheart_ ,' as she touched the outer glass.

But then the most amazing thing happened; and she'd seen quite a few amazing things during her time along with the Doctor, it had to be said. Lots of bonkers and fantastic stuff.

The jar began to glow.

It then expanded, blew outwards as light streamed out in all directions, and the hand landed on the grating a short distance away from her. Thinking it would shrivel up or turn to dust, she was stunned to see it grow outwards as though forged in a steel mill; forming the body of a person. As the body solidified into a recognisable being, Donna could not hold back from the pain in her chest any longer, and she slunk to the grating in a dead faint.

The body shook his head, enjoying the feel of being alive, and then sought her out. Seeing her unconscious, he cried out pathetically, "Mum!" And then crawled towards her.

' _Oh great_ ,' he thought as he examined himself. Jenny managed to be born with a full set of clothing, and here he was completely naked. ' _How wizard! Better stop all this heat and flames first before worrying about finding a pair of underpants._ '

Hauling himself up the side of the console, he leaned over and pressed the blue button. Immediately, the TARDIS dematerialised, cool air jets blasted down along with a fire extinguishing substance, and the thick smoke dissipated, allowing him to breath much more easily.

He found something to tuck underneath Donna's head and then ran off to find some decent clothing.

"Where am I?" Donna blearily wondered when she came too some minutes later. She lifted her head to where the person had been, and found him kneeling by her side, gazing at her in wonder. He reminded her of someone. Oh yes, she realised. He looked just like the Doctor, only lots younger. Probably how he would have been during his teenage years. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine now, Mum," he replied.

"Mum?" she repeated in confusion. "That's the second time that's happened to me today. What's the connection this time? You look like you're the Doctor's clone but hardly out of nappies."

He shuddered in disgust. "No, not a clone nor a baby. By the feel of it, I'm in puberty, so about seventy; that's about seventeen in Earth years. Plus, I have two parents, you and the Doctor. Your DNA allowed me to exist."

"In the same way as Jenny?"

"No, Mum. Dad picked up your DNA from the console controls. You had piloting lessons beforehand. Do you remember? Well. You were all over his clothing."

"I can imagine that happening more recently," she commented, and then halted; blushing deep red in embarrassment.

"It's alright, Mum. I know about you and Dad consummating your marriage," he assured her. "And it's all fine. You love him, and he loves you."

"What are you on about," she blustered. "It's a marriage of convenience. That's what we agreed on."

"If you say so," he disagreed. "I know otherwise." He then pointed at his head. "I have your memories and most of his."

"Oh dear."

"No, it's not all bad. I can lock them away, to access them if and only if I need them. Which I will do, once we're safe."

"Good," she breathed.

"And once I've made sure Dad knows all about Rose stalking him through you," he added.

"Then that wasn't all a dream?"

He shook his head. "No, it really happened. That was her outside the Adipose building, on the screen when you were trapped on the Sontaran battleship, and all those times in Leeds. Sorry."

"It's not your fault," she automatically comforted him. "So… What do we call you, Handy Andy?"

"Erm. Andy will do for now, but I might change it later. In the meantime, let's get our bums in gear and rescue Dad and Jenny."

"And how exactly are we going to do all that?"

"Build a weapon. D'uh!" he answered; and laughed when she swatted his arm for being cheeky. "Honestly, our best option is to use Davros' DNA to our advantage now that we know all the Daleks came from cells in his body."

"Genius!" she praised.

"Must take after my mum," he schmoozed.

"Geroff! I'm just a temp."

"No, you're not, Mum," he sincerely told her. "Can you not feel it? That wasn't a one-way Metacrisis. You were transformed too."

"I was?"

"Yes." His smile grew broader. "Welcome to life as a Time Lord."

"Two hearts. I've got two hearts," she noted, hand on chest, and smiled wanly at him. "What's my mum going to say?"

"We don't have to tell her, if you don't want to," he suggested. "Let's leave that for later and get back to the Crucible."

"Good idea."

o0o


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N:** and now the Crucible stuff before I can get back to the plot.

* * *

 **Part Thirteen**

.

The Doctor lifted his head as a familiar and much yearned for sound drifted onto the Crucible. The TARDIS. Miracle of miracles. With it came a blast of fulfilment within his mind that had lain empty since the TARDIS had disappeared down that Dalek chute. She was alive!

Every human face turned towards him to see if he knew why it was appearing like an avenging angel. He had no explanation for them, his previous travelling companions. Jack had found Mickey with Sarah Jane, and they'd been beamed in along with Martha to witness the final moments of the Daleks.

Trapped as they all were within individual holding cells; the Doctor had been patiently waiting for the end of reality; his soul ripped bare for all to see. But he had been given last minute hope in the form of his oldest companion. The doors of the TARDIS opened to reveal a teenage boy holding a device as though he was practicing being James Bond.

But the sight of the lad wasn't the only thing that stunned him. As the doors had opened, so had long dead portions of his mind. There was singing of a completely new song, that thrummed its way around his veins and filled every crevice. "What?!" he gasped out as he dealt with the onslaught.

Behind the lad, Donna crept surreptitiously out of the doors and hid, avoiding the attention of Davros as he mocked both the Doctor and her son. She'd get him back for that, she vowed, and aimed for the Megatron that controlled the Dalek Crucible. Still unseen, she set about accessing some very useful memories of his and opened a few mental doors before finding what she needed. One such door contained information that burst through her mind, causing her eyes to glow bright gold and the Doctor to turn in her direction. Ignoring the silent appeal from the him as he nudged the periphery of her mind, she began frantically pressing levers as though it was a redesigned church organ.

The humans in the room didn't notice her presence until the Dalek countdown failed to detonate the reality bomb and Davros sat there like a spare lemon at a cocktail party. Now this was living! Donna allowed herself the thrill of surprising them all by declaring her actions and sending the Daleks off in all directions; much to the Doctor's friends amusement.

 _Explanations later, Time boy,_ she loudly pushed at the Doctor. _For now, let's get these planets back where they belong._

 _Yes dear._ He grinned with sheer delight as he raced to join her by her side.

o0o

"Where's the boy?" the Doctor wondered as he opened the TARDIS doors.

"I'm here, Dad," he called out as he passed by.

Ignoring that for now, the Doctor hastily whispered to Donna before she disappeared inside, "We need to talk later."

She nodded and threw an anxious glance towards Andy, who grimaced in commiseration.

The Doctor had other things to deal with first and announced each person as they entered the TARDIS; all running desperately to avoid disappearing into the Void with the Daleks. But one person was shocked for different reasons as he looked around the console room.

"Where's Rose?" Mickey Smith asked no one in particular. "She was supposed to be here."

"I haven't seen her," the Doctor answered. "Anyone else?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"She wasn't with us," Jack supplied, pointing to Sarah Jane and Mickey, "and I'm guessing she didn't find Martha."

"I'm not sure I'd know her," Martha admitted, "but I haven't seen anyone with blonde hair on the way here apart from Jenny."

Jenny merely shook her head and shrugged her shoulders noncommittally.

"What makes you think Rose would be here?" the Doctor asked Mickey, part of him considering going back onto the Crucible to look for her. "And how come you're here and she isn't?"

Feeling all eyes on him, Mickey stated, "I was sent to an alternative world to bring her back when she lost her dimension jump."

"By Dave?" Jenny immediately wondered.

"That's him," Mickey confirmed and then frowned. "How do you know that?"

"Because it was me that took it, to get here," she replied. "You were saying: you were sent to get her back."

"Yes. When I got there, she said she was going to aim straight for this universe and the Doctor, since she knew where he should be," he explained, "so I followed her, and landed up somehow with Sarah Jane here. She was taken up into the Crucible and I sneaked her out of the reality bomb demo chamber. That's when we met Jack out in a corridor."

Jack grinned proudly. "Just doing my job," he declared. "Not even a Dalek can get rid of me."

On the other side of the console, at the same time, Martha took the opportunity to greet her friend. She grabbed Donna and hugged her tight. "Donna! I thought you had died."

"So did I for a second," Donna admitted, "but fortunately Squib here came to the rescue." She pointed to Andy standing protectively by her side.

"Squib?" Martha turned to gaze at the Metacrisis Doctor in interest. "He looks just like the Doctor but younger. Is he the same as Jenny?"

"Not quite but almost," Donna answered, and took hold of his sleeve to drag him nearer. "He started out as that hand under the console. Andy, come and meet Martha Jones. Martha, this is our son, Andrew."

"Nice to meet you, Andy," Martha said with a huge grin on her face. "Son, you say? That must be a bit awkward."

"No more than her finally telling you that she married Dad," Andy put in.

"Married?!" Martha cried in shock. "When did that happen?"

"Oh erm…" Donna looked sheepish as her eyes sought out the whereabouts of the Doctor. He was now busy chatting to an older woman called Sarah Jane who stood with Captain Jack. "A couple of weeks ago."

"And you didn't tell me," Martha accused. "I feel gutted."

"It wasn't intentionally a big secret. Honest," Donna contritely replied. "We just thought we'd keep things quiet about it for a while."

"I didn't even get to be there," Andy complained. "Nor Jenny. You'd think they'd have their own children there at the wedding, wouldn't you?"

Donna frowned at him. "What are you talking about? You didn't even exist technically until today, you prawn."

"I know," he agreed with a cheeky wink. "Which means that you'll have to do a proper celebration for all your friends here when we get back to Earth."

"Oh, I don't know about that," she blustered. For all she knew, if Rose actually did turn up at any second, it might be a divorce they were celebrating instead. "That's up to your father."

"Okay." Andy turned towards the Doctor and yelled out, "Dad! Are you going to have a party to mark your wedding?"

"What wedding?" Sarah Jane immediately wondered.

"Are you married, Boss?" Mickey asked.

"He is," Jenny answered for him. "Him and Mum."

Sarah Jane was none the wiser. "Who is your mother? Is it Rose?"

Jenny looked horror struck and grasped her dad's arm for support. "Not Rose. She's far too young for that. Donna is my mother."

"Donna," Sarah Jane repeated, regarding the woman herself. "How did that happen?"

"A bit late for her to be given the birds and the bees talk," Andy muttered sarcastically; and Donna immediately swatted his arm while Martha giggled.

"It's a long story," the Doctor announced, "best said over a refreshing cup of tea and a slice of cake."

"But not wedding cake. Not yet," Andy stated. "Although no doubt Nan will want to provide some when she gets the chance."

"Nan?" Donna queried.

"Well, I've got to call her something, and it'd be odd to refer to her as Sylvia when she's theoretically my grandmother," he defended his words.

"Can we discuss that later?"

"Anything you want, Mum," he cheerily replied.

"Then mine's white, two sugars," she retorted, causing him to roll his eyes.

"Yes, alright, I'll make you a drink. Anybody else want a tea or coffee?" he offered; and then headed for the kitchen.

o0o

Andy danced about in the kitchen, enjoying his brand-new body and shook his head in delight, revelling in the sensation of having hair and being able to feel it bounce about. According to his reflection, he was more than a touch ginger, and the thought of making the Doctor jealous caused him to almost laugh with glee. He turned his grin onto Jack as the Time agent entered the kitchen. "Can I have a quick word with you, Captain? I have a favour I need to ask you."

"Call me 'Jack', and I don't dally with anyone under age or who can't give consent," Jack warmly answered.

"Oh no! I didn't mean anything like that," Andy hastily amended. "It's to do with preserving the time lines."

Jack smiled. "Well, in that case, I'm all ears. Where shall we go and talk?"

"Let me hand out these teas and then I'll find somewhere," Andy whispered.

Moments later, he handed the Doctor a hot mug of tea and a plate full of sliced cake to choose from.

"Thanks," the Doctor automatically greeted the action.

Letting go of the mug, Andy declared, "Here you go, Dad. Get your laughing gear around this."

The Doctor instantly spluttered through a mouthful of tea, "I wish you wouldn't call me that."

"Get used to it. _Dad_ ," Andy repeated, grinning at his own joke as he turned to hand a mug to Sarah Jane.

"Teenagers, eh?" Donna sympathised. "They're born to be a thorn in your side." She then moved over to stand by Andy. "Talking of thorny situations," she quietly asked him, "where is Rose? I thought she was supposed to be here."

He shrugged. "Don't ask me, but perhaps Jenny has some idea what happened to her."

Donna cast her gaze about the console room, looking for Jenny to ask, and spotted Jack giving Andy the thumbs up. "What's that all about? Jack has a special interest in you."

"Ah," Andy guiltily exclaimed. "Well, you see, I wanted to make sure things went along the path they are supposed to _and_ deflect a paradox at the same time."

"Which means?" she encouraged him to talk by whirling her hand in the air. "And why do I get the feeling I won't be exactly pleased?"

"Can I tell you both later, when everyone else has been dropped off home?" he pleaded. "I promise you'll like it."

"I'll like it so much I won't want an audience to see how I 'reward' you. Yes, I'm loving this already," she sarcastically commented. "Will it be a 'hide Nanny's axe' type of a moment?"

"You'll have to wait and see," he impishly retorted, and raced away to start up a conversation with Mickey as he stood chatting to Martha.

"We're going to have to watch that one," she remarked to the Doctor.

"Will that be for entertainment reasons or general surveillance?" Jenny wondered. "I discovered the television room," she offered in defence when her parents both raised an eyebrow in question.

"Once we finish our tea, I think we should start dropping our friends off home," the Doctor decided.

o0o


	14. Chapter 14

**H/C Prompt Word(s):** forced soulbonding  
 **A/N:** written with a prompt for **hc_bingo** Round 9  
 **A/N2:** many thanks to **shivver13** for checking the ending for me.

* * *

 **Part Fourteen**

.

"Okay," the Doctor aimed towards Donna once the TARDIS doors were shut, leaving the Time Family all on their own. "You and I need to have this talk and clear the air between us."

"We do?" Donna hesitantly queried.

"Don't worry about us," Andy said when she glanced his way. "I'll get us into the Vortex while you two have your talk, and then Jenny and I will make us all some tea."

"Thank you, love," Donna replied as the Doctor took her hand and guided her out of the console room and into the corridor beyond. "Alright, Spaceman, you've got me on my own," she blurted out once they reached the library. "What is it you wanted to say to me?"

He gazed at her with huge, soulful eyes. "You smell different; very much Time Lord different. But more than that, I thought you had died. Permanently," he practically whimpered.

"I'm still here. Like a cockroach, I'm hard to get rid of," she joked.

"Please don't mock my pain at losing you," he begged as he lowered his head onto her shoulder, wrapping his long arms around her. "Please don't," he whispered.

Immediately, she clasped him around his waist, hugging him tight. "You know I never would," she sincerely consoled him. "Not after everything we've been through together."

He gave a defensive sniff into the crook of her neck. "I feel as though I haven't got you back yet. Why have you shut me out?" he muttered in hurt tones.

"Shut you out?" she echoed and raised a hand to touch his upper arm in consolation.

"On the Crucible you opened your mind to me but since we've been back in the TARDIS you have closed thoughts, feelings, everything to me," he quietly explained. "And it hurts."

"I didn't mean to. I thought I was being respectful, you know," she clarified, "since most of them aren't my thoughts but yours in my head. And I promise I only peeked through the closed mental doors you set up to find out some useful information. Once I found it, I didn't look any further; promise."

"Yet you are still wary of me," he noted as he lifted his head to gaze directing into her eyes. "What did you see?"

"Well erm…," she hesitated, and then decided to come clean. "Rose. I saw your glowing opinion of Rose, all golden and reverent. I quickly shut the door on it, I can tell you, but I saw all that love for her nevertheless. Sorry."

"You didn't mean to," he acknowledged. "Like you didn't mean to find that word."

She drew in a sharp breath. "Honest, I didn't mean to find that text graphic. It just bounced out at me like an eager puppy."

"I felt you find it," he quietly stated. "In fact, it burnt through my mind when it happened. That word is me. You do know the consequences of learning my name, don't you?"

"Yes, it forms a bond between us, and I'm so sorry I've forced you into this," she quickly apologised. "Will you still be able to carry out the divorce when Rose shows up? I don't think I've managed to spoil that one for you. I hope."

"Donna," he sighed in exasperation and adjusted his hold on her body, "I have no intention of seeking a divorce from you. In many ways it's a shame you stopped looking behind those mind doors."

"Why?" she wondered, and cautiously watched his hand rise to tuck a lock of stray hair behind her ear. "What did you want me to find?"

"The reason why I asked you to help me in the first place," he murmured, moving his lips nearer. "The reason why I am delighted your forever can now be mine. In short, Donna Noble, I would have sent Rose back to be with her mother because I choose you."

She tried to laugh. "You make that sound like a declaration of love," she blustered.

' _Then look closer,_ ' he mentally suggested, ghosting his mouth over hers.

' _Oh!_ ' she gasped after opening a particular mental door in his mind, feeling the information shine out through her soul.

' _Oh indeed,_ ' he purred, and finally landed his lips on her mouth to kiss her delicately.

The kiss soon evolved into something more desperate and relatively steamy, as he pressed her body up against his torso.

' _Does every near-death experience make you this randy?_ ' she idly wondered without breaking their snogathon.

' _Not usually,_ ' he noted, still intent on their task. ' _Just one thing; we've got two teenage children. Two!_ '

Breaking instantly away from him, she grumbled, "Do you really want to talk about that just as we're about to celebrate our reunion?"

"Good point," he agreed apologetically. "We'll come back to that later. Let's go celebrate 'us' somewhere a little more comfortable."

Letting him drag her away, she saucily commented, "I was beginning to think you'd never ask."

o0o

Out in the console room, Jenny eyed the young man who seemed to be bouncing around the TARDIS as if he owned it, with great caution and open regard. There was something about him that was extremely familiar. His scent was similar to her father, as were his facial features, but his hair was more like the shade of her mother's. Yet for some unknown reason she didn't fully trust him. "Who are you?" she hissed under her breath. "I insist you tell me. Are you kin?"

He flicked a glance her way as he adjusted one of the controls on the console. "You could say that," he said as though he was bestowing greatness upon her. He then turned a cheeky grin in her direction and murmured, "I'm your brother, you prawn."

Her brow furrowed in confusion. This was all very new. "Why am I a prawn? Is that a family name, or statement of being?"

To her deep annoyance, he laughed.

"Jennifer Ella Noble, you are priceless," he stated, "but I can see that I am going to have to formerly introduce myself. Some call me the Metacrisis Doctor, but I think of myself as Andrew Joshua Noble. Donna is my mum and the Doctor my dad, so we are practically twins. Fraternal twins admittedly, but you are still the oldest."

"You're my little brother," she reasoned out, looking up at him, since he was almost a good head taller. "A new piece of family. Could have been worse."

"Oi!" he protested. "Worse would have been me being created as your betrothed."

"Ew!" she agreed, scrunching up her face in disgust. "That's a horrible thought."

"I know," he retorted. "Like being a walking sexbot."

"What's a sexbot?" she inevitably asked.

"Anyway," he continued, ignoring the question for now, "we have two parents who need to proclaim their relationship to the British authorities as soon as possible so that Dad doesn't get kicked out the country. But first, we get to meet Nan and Gramps; check that they are okay and everything. Are you up for that?"

"Yes please," Jenny replied, almost bouncing in her excitement. "Tell me what to press so that I can help." After a few moments, she asked her most pressing question. "Why do you look so much like Dad when I don't?"

"Oh, but you do," he insisted. "You look very much like his fifth regeneration."

"Really?"

He nodded. "Uhahmm. And you'll fit right in to Mum's family with your looks, no problem."

Jenny eased a sigh of relief. "Would you show me how to prepare the tea drink you gave everyone earlier?"

"Of course," he happily replied, and released the console to lead the way whilst beginning his lecture.

Behind them on the monitor, unseen, a young woman frantically yelled through a silent connection for a few brief moments.

o0o

A shadowy figure suddenly appeared in the TARDIS console room and delicately picked its way into the main corridor and towards the bedrooms. It was Rose, and she had used up all the power reserves to get through the last remaining breach of the Rift to reach this destination in her hunt for the Doctor.

The first bedroom she found contained a boy she did not recognise. Wondering who he was, she pushed on, and to her horror, spied the Doctor lying in bed with Donna; both of them fast asleep. Now beyond angry, she aimed for the next room, hoping it would contain Jenny so that she could be berated for abandoning her in the parallel world.

But Jenny was ready for the visitation, thanks to the TARDIS' early warning system. "Hello Rose."

"Don't you 'hello' me," Rose spat. "You were supposed to be badly wounded after I shot you for abandoning me. What the hell is going on here?!"

"So that shot was you? Thought so. Dave got you out, just as I knew he eventually would, despite you not knowing nor caring how he feels about you, so I don't understand what you are so miffed about," Jenny argued. "We also assumed it was Mickey he sent in after you."

"Yes, Mickey rescued me. Why?" Rose cautiously wondered.

"Because he turned up here soon afterwards. We've kept him, by the way. He's working with Jack now in Cardiff."

"What!" Rose yelled, incensed. "That was supposed to be me!"

"Then you should have trusted your own technicians to get it right rather than send a guinea pig. You've lost your chance now with the retro-closure. Mum taught me that phrase."

"Ah yes, your mother," Rose snapped in disgust. "What did she do to the Doctor?"

Jenny was in two minds to describe in graphic detail the mating ritual her parents had undergone, but they had emphasised that such things are also intended to be personal and immensely private. In fact, they'd seemed quite angry she had found out. Anyway... Rose didn't need to know that amount of information.

Stalling for time, her mouth opened and shut a few times before Jenny admitted, "She married him."

It had all the explosive effect she could have wished for. "Married him?!" Rose squealed in horror. "But he loves _me_ , not _her_!"

"I'm not sure he's aware of that," Jenny calmly replied.

"Jenny, who are you talking to so loudly? If it's Martha, tell her we'll call her back later," the Doctor proposed as he appeared by Jenny's side. "Oh!" he gasped out in shock. "Why is Rose here?"

Here at last was her reveal moment, so Jenny took great pride in stating, "She's using the dimension cannon to break through for the last time, Dad."

"Dad?" Rose repeated in utter disgust, taking a step back. "She's got you allowing her to say that. Why?"

The Doctor sucked in a breath. "Because Jenny is my daughter, Rose. She was my daughter before I married Donna, her mother."

"No! No no no no, this cannot be real," Rose denied, waving her hands about, and becoming especially despondent when a dressing-gown-clad Donna joined him to stand next to Jenny.

"It's very real," he maintained, and took Donna's hand in his. "Unlike your link to us, it will continue to be real. By doing this broadcast you have alerted the Shadow Proclamation to your whereabouts. Despite my warning not to break down the boundaries between universes, you still went and did it anyway. I suggest you either stop broadcasting immediately or hide from the Shadow Proclamation."

"Shadow Proclamation?" Rose sneered at him. "They're just something you made up to threaten people with."

"I assure you they are also real, and they tend to use the Judoon."

"What do they look like?" a fearful Rose asked as something obviously caught her eye on her visual periphery.

"Great big outer space police rhinos," Donna took pleasure in describing. "You can't miss 'em. Why?"

"Because I think they've just arrived!" Then Rose faded away for the very last time.

o0o


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N:** this part is posted today in order to wish **mullikim** a very happy birthday!

* * *

 **Part Fifteen**

.

They sullenly ate breakfast together, still shocked by their visitation. It was Jenny who spoke about it first. "What do you think the Judoon did to her?" she softly asked.

The Doctor sat back in his seat and slowly voiced the options. "If she was lucky, they would have taken her for trial in front of the Shadow Architect."

"And if she wasn't?"

"Instant execution," he stated, and grimaced. "It all depends what charges they had on their arrest sheet."

"Could you have stopped it?" Jenny wondered.

"No." He shook his head. "I cannot change galactic law."

"Did you seriously want her to be rescued after what she did to you?" Andy asked Jenny incredulously. "You must be mad."

Seeing the puzzled expression on her father's face, Jenny explained, "Rose admitted that she had shot at me. What she didn't know is that she missed and hit you instead; forcing you to partially regenerate."

"It might help you to know that Rose died a long time ago. The Judoon merely stopped her existence," the Doctor offered.

"When did she die?" Donna asked. "Because the hologram we saw walking about in here looked as though it came from a living person."

"Ideas, anyone?" the Doctor challenged them.

"The dimension cannon," Andy voiced his thought processes. "She told Mum that the dimension cannon suddenly starting working."

"She did," Donna agreed.

"From what I know from you, Dad, that could be thanks to a member of the Trickster's Brigade visiting her at the point of death," Andy continued. "If they offered Rose something she had already yearned for in exchange for changing events, she would have jumped at the chance."

"Oh!" Donna gasped in realisation. "She had to get me back here to save the universe, but she killed me off as the opposition."

"As she tried to do to me," Jenny reasoned. "Both of us stopped her being the sole companion in the TARDIS. Instead, she accidentally shot Dad and created Andy."

"To be fair, I _was_ an important part of the saving of the universe bit," Andy immodestly put in. "Weird that I can sort of thank her for existing in the first place."

"There's a silver lining in everything," Donna fondly told him, and he smirked in satisfaction.

"So I don't have to feel guilty that the Judoon punished her for breaking the boundaries between universe?" Jenny queried.

"No," the Doctor assured her. "If anyone is to blame, it is the Trickster's Brigade for making it happen."

"Hang on," Donna blurted out. "If Rose hadn't been so determined to do what you told her not to attempt, then they'd have had no victims. She's at fault too."

"And very young," the Doctor allowed. "She knew no better."

Andy snorted into his mug of tea, "Come off it! If she didn't learn the basic rules of time travel during her adventures with you, she was a disaster waiting to happen. Like a ticking time bomb."

"Well….," the Doctor blustered his dismissal of that thought. He found three pairs of eyes glaring at him in disbelief.

Pretending to gag, Andy commented, "We get it. Rose can get people killed and try to murder or threaten others, but she can do no wrong in your eyes. She's safely ensconced for evermore on her pedestal."

"That's not true," the Doctor protested.

"I think it is," Donna disagreed. "Can we change the subject, please? I suddenly know exactly how Martha felt when she started to travel with you. That perfect image of Rose is pretty hard to beat."

"What!" The Doctor's expression was utterly disgusted.

"You've got something on the corner of your mouth," Donna told him, pointing at his lips. When he brought a hand up to investigate, she added, "It's a little bit of guilt and denial."

Both Jenny and Andy burst into laughter, much to his mortification. "We'll discuss this later," he growled.

"You bet we will," Donna answered. "Now. What shall we do first next?"

Jenny turned her bright grin onto her parents. "When are we going to visit Nan and Gramps?" she eagerly enquired.

"Right away," the Doctor offered; and then stopped short of getting up to make his way to the console. "What did you call them? We hadn't agreed on a name, had we, Donna?"

"We may not have, but I get the feeling Andy did," she answered, smirking. "Mum's going to love it when they turn up on her doorstep."

"Do you think so?" the Doctor wondered. "It will be instant grandparenthood, after all."

"Give over. Of course, she will," Donna tried to convince herself. "After all, she got used to the fact we got married. Eventually. After a week or two."

"Is she likely to get hostile, Dad?" Jenny asked, ready to defend him.

"Only if I don't show her daughter due respect," he replied, and grinned reassuringly. "I'm sure by now that she loves me."

"That would be for your naturally modest behaviour," Donna teased.

"He'll be fine," Andy told Jenny, "once he turns on the charm again. Not that he'll need to, because I'll be there to schmooze the old girl."

"Oi!" Donna protested. "Less of 'the old girl', thank you very much. That's my mother you're talking about."

"And my grandmother," Andy retorted, "so I'm naturally already one up on Dad."

"There is that," Donna agreed with a nod of her head. "All we have to do now is tell her you exist."

o0o

"There she is! There's my girl, and his lordship," Wilf happily greeted them when he opened the front door. "And you've brought company," he added when he spied Jenny and Andy with them.

"We'll introduce them properly in a minute, Wilf," the Doctor promised as Donna was released from a loving hug and one was aimed towards him. "Can we go on through?"

"Make yourselves at home. I'll put the kettle. Is it tea all round?"

"Yes, please," both Jenny and Andy chimed in response.

When he reappeared to wait for the kettle to boil, Wilf commented, "I'm glad you've shown up because I've something to show you. Some new photos." He bustled about, opening drawers in the sideboard before exclaiming in joy. "Found them!" He then turned to his assembled family. "That American fella brought some of them yesterday, so I dug out the rest this afternoon. Lots of photos of Donna and her life. Here, have a look while I go finish making the tea."

Rather hesitantly, it had to be said, Donna accepted the stack of papers from her departing grandfather; and began to thumb through them. "Oh my God," she gasped on seeing images of her and the Doctor stood on top of the Thames Barrier one dark, cold Christmas Eve. She then dutifully handed each photo on for someone else to see.

"What building is that, Mum?" Jenny wondered, pointing to a background feature in another.

"St Paul's Cathedral," was the reply. "These are lovely. How did Jack do all this?"

"He has cameras everywhere," the Doctor idly noted, and then halted himself when met with a tense glare. "Well. Almost everywhere. Places on Earth, anyway and nowhere else."

"Phew," Donna sighed in relief. "But it must have taken him…" She then let out a tiny shriek as she reached the photos Wilf had gathered.

"Are you alright, Mum?" Andy asked with concern when she threw a hand over her mouth. "What's upset you?"

In answer, she pointed at the decades old photo in her hand and looked straight at her son. "This is me at Nerys' eighteenth birthday party and with me is…that looks just like… It's you!"

"Me?" He moved nearer to see, and visibly started when she held the image up for scrutiny. "That's me. Ah. I can explain."

"You'd better explain alright," she muttered in threatening tones.

"Cooo-eeee! Have we got visitors, Dad?" Sylvia could be heard to pleasantly call out from the hallway.

"Saved by the shout. This isn't over, young fella me lad," Donna hissed at Andy. "Do you understand?"

"Yes Mum," Andy gulped. "But I might need you to save me from Nan first."

With consoling touch on his shoulder, Donna stood up to greet her mother and shield her children. "Hello Mum! It's us. We came to see if you're okay."

Sylvia came bustling in, all excitement and relief. "Thank God you're safe." She gave both Donna and the Doctor a brief hug and kiss on the cheek. "Me and Dad were so worried about you. Who's this with you? You never said you had a younger brother, Doctor. Is this his girlfriend?"

Jenny didn't manage to keep the affronted expression off her face whilst Andy tried not to burst out laughing.

"No, Sylvia. We have news of a different kind to tell you," the Doctor began to explain, just as Wilf came in holding mugs of tea on a tray. "For both of you. Andy is not my brother but my son, with Donna. And Jenny is our daughter."

"I know this sounds bonkers," Donna quickly added when her mother gasped in shock, "but you already knew the Doctor is different from you."

"Don't you mean 'us'?" Wilf queried.

"All part of the explanation," the Doctor hesitantly admitted. "I'm a Time Lord. I look like you, but I am not physically like you. When we die, we regenerate and become a new person, you see. A few months ago, some of our DNA was stolen from me to create a force-grown soldier we named Jenny. She died saving me from a despot and we thought we would never see her again. Yesterday she managed to find us. Soon after, I was shot and died thanks to the actions of an ex-and partially regenerated. Instead of completely changing, and messing up our option of defeating the Daleks, I syphoned off my spare energy into my severed hand that I lost on the day of my emergence. When Donna touched the hand, it became Andy here. He helped us reprogramme the Dalek command ship and get the Earth back to where it belonged in the Sol System."

"It was a _very_ busy day," Donna understated. "One minute we were still on our honeymoon, and the next we rediscovered Jenny and were lumbered with Andy."

"Oi!" he protested.

"Alright. Perhaps 'lumbered' is the wrong word," she mischievously allowed, "but I got my reward of a little girl and boy after all. Age-wise they're practically twins. So, Mum, Gramps, I want to introduce you to our son and daughter. What d'you think?"

With tears in her eyes, Sylvia proclaimed, "We knew things would be different with the Doctor around. I would have liked to have seen them grow up, but besides that, I think they're marvellous. Don't you, Dad?"

"Oh yes. Definitely," Wilf happily agreed. "Am I allowed to hug you both?"

Hugs were immediately offered and eagerly accepted to both elders.

"Bet you thought you'd never see this day, eh Mum?" Donna wondered as Sylvia hugged the stuffing out of Jenny.

"I did," Sylvia confessed, "but it was worth the wait. I can't tell you how happy I am."

"Oh Nan," Andy crooned, pulling her into his embrace when she dissolved into tears. "It seemed like a long time to us too, but at least we're here now."

"All you've got to do is sort out that deportation business," Wilf noted, bringing down the tone of the room.

"Yes," the Doctor acknowledged as he pulled Donna towards him for a comforting hug. "I'll do that tomorrow, right away. But first we have to celebrate being alive together."

"I'll get some cake out," Sylvia decided.

o0o


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N:** it might help to know that Derek Acorah is a British TV medium.

* * *

 **Part Sixteen**

.

It hadn't been that hard to sneak away from the Children of Time's saving-Earth festivities onboard the TARDIS and quickly make use of the device he'd been loaned; to be immediately returned upon pain of death if it was harmed or lost.

Clutching Jack's precious Vortex Manipulator, Andy zapped himself into London, late summer 1990. As he had previously told Jack, he wanted to strengthen the time lines. Now, he knew something both his parents were unaware of: they had spotted each other briefly in this particular year. Donna had been on her way to Nerys' birthday party, and the Doctor had been visiting Elton on the quiet to rescue him when his mother had been killed. Only Andy knew that their paths had had the opportunity to cross at this moment.

Dressed in his dad's spare blue suit, Andy had followed some partygoers when they had arrived at Nerys' house and sauntered in as though he was invited too. Nobody questioned the action, but he immediately knew he'd been spotted. It was by someone familiar trying to lean nonchalantly against the fancy Artex near the lounge door whilst pretending they weren't turning into a wallflower.

Hello," he greeted Donna as though they regularly saw each other in college. "Didn't expect to see you here. How do you know the birthday girl?"

"Hello. I grew up with Nerys," she replied whilst desperately trying to think where she has seen this handsome boy before.

"Oh." He nodded to confirm he'd heard. "I worked with her for a while. I'm John, by the way."

"I'm Donna."

After an awkward pause, he asked, "Do you want me to get you a drink?"

"Yes please." She eagerly followed him out to the kitchen to make the most of this opportunity of being seen with a good-looking bloke. "Aren't you having one?" she wondered when he didn't choose a beer for himself but went for something non-alcoholic.

"Nah, I don't need that," he assured her, "and it's best I keep my head clear in order to get home safe. Unless you fancy the idea of me throwing up all over you?"

"Nope, definitely not," she laughed. "You're different. Nicely different," she quickly amended when he frowned.

"Good. That means you might dance with me."

"Me?" she near squeaked in joy.

"Who else would I choose here?" he pondered. "Come on." With that, he took her hand and led her into the middle of the dance area in the lounge.

Several other couples were already dancing there, so he pulled her body close, just as he knew she liked it, and swayed their bodies in time to the music. No matter what the tune was or how fast the beat, he kept her close enough to woo her but not too intimate to frighten her off.

"Do you live near here?" she asked.

"My family live just up the road," he vaguely answered, "but I rarely come this way. I'd love to meet up with you again if we ever get the chance."

Suddenly worried, she asked, "Why won't we?"

"Because my dad travels overseas a lot," he explained, "so I never know where we'll be at any given time."

"That's a shame," she commented in disappointment. "We might never meet again."

"We'll find each other one day," he promised. "We're destined to be together."

She laughed at that. "Yeah, as if."

"Just you wait and see," he murmured, holding her tightly to him so that they could talk in intimate whispers. "This night is special."

"Smile!" someone yelled out, and then a flash nearly blinded them when they obediently turned to gaze at their photographer.

To add insult to injury, at least two more photos of them were taken by their assailant.

"Nerys, you could have given us a better warning," Donna hissed.

But Nerys was unrepentant. "Not when you were practically snogging each other's faces off, could I. At least I got you to stop smooching for a second."

"I think Nerys is a wee bit jealous," Andy muttered into Donna's ear.

"What, you think she fancies you?" she softly retorted with a snort.

"No, I don't think it's me she's after," he quietly replied; and left his mother to work it out later. It would be a while, after all, before Nerys would out herself. "Anyway. Where were we? Oh yes. Smooching but not snogging."

Donna blushed a deep red. "Sorry about that. Nerys tends to have this need to embarrass me."

"I've noticed." He smiled and hugged her. "I love cuddling you," he happily sighed. "I could do this all night."

"I bet that's not the only thing you'd want to do."

"Contrary to popular belief, not all males are like that," he argued, and snuggled into her neck. No wonder his dad had purred, he idly thought as he let those thoughts whirl through his head. "Some of us are gentlemen."

"Then I shall make a note in my diary that I've finally met one," she sarcastically replied whilst enjoying immensely this affectionate attention she was receiving.

"You do that," he agreed. "Although next time we meet I may want to snog you senseless."

"Oh really?"

"Really. But it's getting late, so I shall walk you home."

"Don't go thinking I'm letting you do this so that you can get a quick jolly," she warned.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

When he left her at the front gate of her former home, he placed a chaste kiss on her cheek and thanked her for a wonderful evening. Then he immediately shook his head to get rid of his dad's retrieved thoughts, putting them firmly back where they belonged.

That kiss had reassured him that his mother had indeed fancied his dad, despite any appearances otherwise, and that any future intentions would be warmly welcomed, even if she would not fall over herself to tell him that.

Yes, the time lines were safe, and his parents were free to fall in love even quicker than they had originally but secretly done so. And the assumed meaning of the "no nonsense" speech had been subtly changed from "don't ever touch me" to "treat me with respect", just as it should have been.

He felt quite satisfied with the results from his acting role as he whooshed back to 2008 and the TARDIS.

"Anything else you need from me before I go home?" Jack had asked, strapping the Vortex Manipulator back onto his wrist where it belonged.

It had been a sarcastic question, but Andy had deliberately taken it seriously. "Well, Jenny and I will need birth certificates for Dad to use as evidence to let him stay in this country as a new British citizen, otherwise this Brexit nonsense will deport him at the drop of a hat."

"We can't have that happen," Jack agreed. "Leave it to me and I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks, Uncle Jack."

"Different," Jack mused, "with a strong hint of cheeky, but I like it."

o0o

Donna was still holding a copy of one of the photos taken at Nerys' eighteenth birthday party in her hand when they returned home to the TARDIS from visiting her mother and grandfather. She flipped it between her fingers before opening up her questioning session.

"Anybody want tea?" Jenny eagerly offered. She was extremely keen to show off her new tea-making skills.

"I'd love some," the Doctor encouraged her.

"Me too," Andy echoed.

"That'd be lovely, thanks," Donna added. Waiting for their daughter to skip away, she caught Andy with a glare, to stop him in his tracks before he could escape.

"Did you want me?" Andy gulped, knowing full well what might be coming next.

"Okay. Andy, I want answers. Care to tell me why my own son went back in time to try and date me? Because at the moment it all seems a bit sick," Donna confronted him.

"It wasn't like that. Honestly, Mum, I didn't mean any harm," he admitted. "I even called myself 'John', if you remember, so that you'd think I was Dad."

"That explains the lack of kissing," she reasoned, "but you tricked me and deliberately made me fall for you."

He shook his head fervently. "Not me personally. Don't you see? You fell in love with Dad. I wasn't _me_ during those hours but completely _him_. I turned off anything that was obviously me and channelled Dad."

"Who are you: Derek Acorah? Or some sort of Mystic Meg?" she scoffed.

"Something like that. The Gallifreyan version, seeing as I have both your thoughts and his, and I can tap in to them whenever necessary. I can even let your personality override mine."

"Did you know about this?" she accosted her husband now standing at the console.

"No, but I suspected it was possible," the Doctor replied. "His thoughts and personality are very flexible."

"And how do you feel about him dancing up close with me all night?"

The Doctor let go of the control he was fiddling with and moved nearer. "How close are we talking about?"

"Extremely close. Snuggles and everything. The only thing he didn't do was stick his tongue down my throat."

"There are limits to everything," Andy defended himself. "In all other ways I was you, Dad."

"A bit tenuous," the Doctor agreed with Donna, "but he was trying to be as I would have behaved."

"So you're okay that he kissed me goodbye?"

"On the cheek!" Andy hastily protested. "As I've already pointed out, I do not have an Oedipus complex."

"Sounds a bit like you do," she muttered.

The Doctor, however, did not consider Andy's actions to be all bad news. "On the other hand, it did mean that you flirted with me more than once when we met later. I benefitted from that."

Disagreeing, she demanded, "How exactly?"

"Andrew, why don't you make sure your sister has finished making the tea and is then settled for the night, and I'll show your mother how."

"Okay," Andy agreed with a grin. It was working already. "We'll leave your tea in the kitchen. See you in the morning. Good night."

Yes, things were really alright, he realised when he heard manly giggles from afar. Anything more than that, he wasn't prepared to witness, thank you very much.

What he didn't hear though was Donna very quietly announcing, "We need to talk."

o0o


	17. Chapter 17

**WARNING:** nowhere near ideal for Rose fans so it's best you avoid this part  
 **A/N:** I tried a few times to completely rewrite this bit, but the anger remained. Sorry about that.  
 **A/N2:** the 'FT' comment refers to an old advert for the Financial Times that was a colloquialism for quite a while.

* * *

 **Part Seventeen**

.

The Doctor sighed in exasperation at her tone. "Where did you want to start?"

"Now that we are on our own, there are so many exciting possibilities," Donna sarcastically commented, "I don't know where to even start, what with _your_ son trying to court me on your behalf. Your son; pretending he fancies me! That certainly needs sorting out. On top of that, you're still mooning over Rose. As if that wasn't enough, there's the fact I've been written out of this marriage already and we've only been married a few days."

"Andy is _our_ son," he stressed, "to be punished jointly by us for his behaviour."

"He certainly didn't get that sort of thinking from me or my side of the family," she complained. "That must come from you."

"Why don't we discuss this in our bedroom," he suggested, worried they'd be overheard.

But to his dismay she shook her head. "That's another problem to be sorted out. I think it's best if I go back to my bedroom now and leave you be."

"What!" he gasped, and then bit back on the pain in his hearts. "Okay. If that's what you want."

"You don't need me in there anymore," she argued in defence. "For a start, you've got the two children you wanted so that blows the plan to have a baby with me out the window." When he gawped at her, she continued, "But if you still need comfort in the night, I can do that for you. I'm not that much of a bitch. We're still best friends."

"And what if I want my wife instead of a friend to comfort me?" he queried.

"Perhaps you can get Andy to go back in time again and rustle up Rose for you this time," she cruelly proposed. "After all, she's the one you really love. It's as plain as the nose on your face the position she holds in your hearts, despite what we told you about her. Or failing that, we can wait a short while until River Song turns up. Shouldn't be long now. Whichever it is, I can't compete with that, and I refuse to. I'd rather cut my losses and let you get on with it."

"For what it's worth, I didn't send Andy to woo you. It was his own idea to strengthen the time lines that bind us."

She shrugged. "That's as may be, because kids will do anything to protect their parents, but you're not denying the Rose business, I see," she noted. "Never mind. You've got the paperwork you needed now to stay in Britain, so you should be able to visit London whenever you like. I'll erm…" She thumbed vaguely towards the bedrooms. "I'll pack my bags and leave you to it."

He bit his lip, trying to hold all the emotion in. "Can you wait until they confirm it? I won't keep you here any longer than necessary."

"Yeah, alright. I'll wait until it's confirmed," she agreed. "I'll say goodnight. Been a long day."

"Goodnight, Donna," he brokenly replied. And watched her walk away.

He couldn't let her do this to them, could he?

Seconds later, he strode into her bedroom; a man on a mission. "Whoa! Wait a tick, missus. Since when have we gone to bed on an argument?"

"Since right now. D'uh." She rolled her eyes to emphasise her meaning, just as he'd expected her to.

"Let's backtrack a bit," he suggested. "I suspect your anger comes from the fact you seem to think you've been written out of our marriage."

She glared at him. "Are you saying I haven't? Because I won't believe you. Everything I thought we'd been is suddenly not true anymore."

"Donna," he sighed, and risked sitting on the edge of her bed while she flounced about. His reasoning was that he was less of a target sitting down. "I haven't written you out," he emphasised, "so who has?"

"Who? Who?!" she snarled. "Rose and your eternal love for her, that's who."

"Why are you suddenly thinking this way?"

"Erm..." She pretended to think it over. "That little incident earlier where you defended her shooting at Jenny and hitting you instead."

Why couldn't she pick on something else? He answered honestly, "I wanted to remember Rose as the sweet innocent shop girl I first met."

"Rather than the murdering jealous obsessive girl she became," Donna finished for him. "I know you shouldn't speak ill of the dead, but she didn't care what harm she caused in jumping dimensions to get to you. A bit of an ego boost, I'll grant you, but also bloody unhealthy for someone like you."

"And what exactly is someone like me? I'm not your little brother."

The arrogant git! "Maybe, but you still need protecting from yourself. I've been told that you've been more than a bit of an arsehole to people in the past."

"Sarah Jane was a long time ago," he defended.

For the love of…! She stressed, "I'm talking about Martha, Captain Jack, Mickey and Jackie."

"Oh," he gasped in realisation, "you talked about me."

"Of course. What did you expect us to do?" she reasoned. "Rose got the special treatment, but I found out that you're not so nice to anyone else. You trampled all over their feelings and now, apparently, it's my turn."

"I'm sorry. So sorry," he began. "You know I care about you, as well as Jenny and Andy."

"I'm not just here to be their babysitter," she warned in case that was his motive. "Or yours, come to that."

"What do you want from me?" he begged. "You know I can't do love declarations all over the place, unlike the men in those romance books you like reading. It was hard enough to open my hearts and mind to you. And I can't stop having a special place reserved for Rose, especially now I've lost her again, in a way that was totally avoidable if I'd acted differently."

Seeing how broken and remorseful he was, she resolved to let him grieve for a while. There was plenty of time to deal with the yawning cracks in their marriage later. "It's happened now, we can't change that," she said, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "We'll talk about my problems some other time, once you've got this Brexit nonsense sorted out."

His head lifted up to regard her with a tinge of hope. "Can I... Can I stay with you tonight? Just to hold."

How could she refuse? But she still needed to state some of her case. "Let's be honest here. Nothing else was going to happen between us, was it."

"What do you mean?" he wondered, clearly confused.

"Not to make too much of a fuss about it, but we only consummated our marriage because _I_ forced you into it," she admitted, with a small self-deprecating shrug of her shoulders. "I grabbed _you_ , not the other way around, so I'm not likely to experience that side of things again in a hurry."

"But Donna..."

"As I said, we can discuss all that another time," she insisted. If she couldn't live with that particular fantasy for a little bit longer, what was the point in trying at all? "I'm going to have a quick shower before bed. I'll leave you to do whatever."

To her surprise and disappointment, when she awoke some hours later after awkwardly snuggling together, her bed was empty, and the Doctor was nowhere to be seen.

o0o

"Dad, what's going on?" Andy asked as soon as he walked into the console room and saw the Doctor fiddling with the wires underneath a panel. "You been at that all night?"

"Not all night, but it needed doing," the Doctor defended. "All finished now." He then glared at his son. "What are you doing out of your room?"

"I'm on breakfast in bed duties," Andy airily answered. "Mum has asked for pancakes, but she didn't know what you wanted so I thought I'd come and see since she also didn't know where you were or what you were doing."

"Fixing some wiring. Nothing suspicious."

"Of course it isn't now that you've pointed it out," Andy sarcastically commented. "You two had a row?"

"Not really." Then the Doctor quickly amended, "Just a bit. Nothing to worry about. Whereas your meddling has caused your mother a great deal of upset."

Andy merely nodded in agreement. "She told me at great length how annoyed and disgusted she is with me. I'm surprised you didn't hear it."

"Ah. Well. I might have nodded off for a while," the Doctor blustered.

"That's clever seeing as you never went to bed last night. But I'm not supposed to know that, huh?" Andy then added as an afterthought, "The TARDIS told me. Part of my punishment, no doubt. All that hard work to get you and Mum together, and I end up breaking you apart instead. Typical." Getting no reply, he muttered, "No FT, no comment. I'll do you some pancakes and leave them in the kitchen. If you don't want them now, you can heat them up later." And then slunk away.

The Doctor paced up and down, but he couldn't hold his anger in, so he headed for the kitchen too. "Do you know what's really unfair in all this?" he demanded as he stormed in. "I showed your mother all the respect I could. Followed her lead, never pushing for more. Her fear was being coerced into a relationship she did not want, after being manipulated and abused by men in her past. She trusted me! Next thing I know, you show up, and it's all gone. Every trace of the life we had. But apparently you know better and risked everything merely to strengthen the time lines. We were destined to be together; that was not a problem."

"Oh yeah?" Andy countered, dropping his spatula in order to join the argument. "IF there was no problem, why did the appearance of Rose worry you so much? Those little fantasies of yours never went away, and you even let Mum see that you idolised Rose, right up until the end. Call me stupid, but that is not healthy for your marriage. And I know about the secret plan to dump me with Rose if push came to shove."

"You know nothing!" the Doctor spat.

"A fair amount of what I know comes from you, so that would explain it." Andy glared back.

"Stop it! Stop arguing!" Jenny shouted from the doorway. "Is this what families do?"

"Sorry, sweetheart. It's just a squabble," the Doctor tried to appease her. "Andy and I only have a disagreement about Donna."

As if summoned, Donna suddenly appeared in the doorway beside Jenny. "Blimey! What's all the shouting about?" she playfully asked before hugging the girl. "If I'd known how loud it was going to be, I'd have asked for something other than pancakes."

"Is this arguing normal?" Jenny wondered from within the embrace.

"Afraid so," Donna tried to nonchalantly reply. "Since Andy takes after your dad so much, they're bound to rub each other up the wrong way."

"Oi!" the Doctor protested; but he didn't mind in the least. They were back to being almost a normal family, going through normal things. "He's your son too."

"Poor him," Donna added, giving Andy a consoling pat on the arm. "Must be awful. Now are we going to have these pancakes or not? I'm starving."

It was with a great deal of relief that Andy told her, "Coming right up!"

"I'll help," Jenny eagerly offered. She then began to collect plates and cutlery.

"Are you okay?" the Doctor quietly asked Donna as their children dished up breakfast.

"Yeah. Fine," she replied with a wan smile, "better than 'alright'."

Still worried, Andy continued to watch his parents carefully during their meal. Something still existed between them, he noted. Things were far from right yet but, unlike a few minutes beforehand, it now looked as though they could be fixed with a bit of work.

o0o


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N:** you might spot a small quote from Red Dwarf in here...

* * *

 **Part Eighteen**

.

It was a phone call from Sylvia a few hours later that had them rushing back to Chiswick.

"Hello Donna. Another those letters has come for the Doctor," Sylvia began. "The official ones in the brown envelope with 'UNIT' written all formally over it. Do you want me to open it for him and read it out, or is he coming to get it himself?"

"Hang on, Mum, and I'll ask him," Donna replied, and then turned to repeat the question.

"Ooh," the Doctor drawled while he considered his answer. "We'll come right away. No time like the present, if you know when it is."

Jenny groaned at the bad joke, but Andy merely did a silent mock laugh.

"What's the time and date, Mum? We need to know to help us land precisely." Donna listened to the information and then dutifully relayed it. "Put the kettle on and we'll you soon. Bye!"

A relatively short time later, the Doctor stood in Sylvia's kitchenette, opened the formal brown envelope and skimmed through the contents of the letter.  
"Well?" Donna enquired when he remained pensive. "Are they kicking you out already, or is it a case of all is forgiven?"

"My presence is requested at the earliest possible moment. To see a Captain Gordon-Holmes tomorrow, or contact them at UNIT if that is inconvenient," he partially read out.

"Oh," she gasped, "that's a bit soon. Must be serious. I'll phone Jack."

He whirled round to demand, "Why?"

"Because he is sorting out certificates," she slowly reminded him. "D'uh! Did you think I'd run after him already?" She was gratified to see him flinch in response. "Course I wouldn't."

"Is that because Dad is a bit of a stud muffin, Mum?" Andy teased to lighten the mood.

She made herself enthusiastically nod. "Yeah, who needs dashing Captain Jack when I can have your dad."

Sitting to the side, Jenny frowned in confusion. "But I thought…?"

"Well, yes," Donna answered the unspoken question, "I'd be daft not to look at Jack. I mean, come on; he _is_ rather fanciable. In a rugged sort of way."

"Like a film star," Sylvia added.

"Nan!" Jenny exclaimed in horror.

"What? I'm old, not dead," Sylvia defended herself. "I can still appreciate a good-looking man."

"Devilishly handsome husband in the room," the Doctor griped to stop them gushing over his previous companion.

"Give over!" Donna chided, thumping the back of her hand across his stomach. "There _are_ other men in the world, and we're allowed to look."

"As long as that's all you are doing," he retorted.

"Isn't he sweet?" she mocked, giving his cheek a tender touch. "Going all possessive and jealous like that. Almost had me thinking you cared, for a second."

"Stop goading him, Donna," Sylvia warned as she handed out mugs of tea to them all. "If you don't treat hm right, he'll go off after someone else."

"Who's to say he won't anyway," Donna mumbled so that her mother wouldn't hear. "Don't worry, Mum, he likes wearing his testicles too much to do that," she uttered more loudly.

"Mum, you wouldn't do that, would you?" Jenny queried.

So Donna glared at her husband before saying, "Let's hope that he never has to find out. But none of that might ever happen if we have to leave London for good."

Sylvia turned on her in fear. "Are you really saying you'd never come back if the Doctor can't stay?"

Keen eyes bore into Donna as she considered her answer. "If the Doctor is kicked out then technically so will our children. And if they aren't welcome then nor am I, as far as I'm concerned. We all come as a package."

The Doctor's smug grin was wiped off his face when Sylvia implored him, "Please talk them into letting you all stay. I couldn't bear to lose you all."

"I promise I will. I've got history," he boasted as his family shared a comforting hug.

o0o

The following day, technically, the Doctor stood in front of his bedroom mirror checking his appearance when he heard, "Have you got your glasses?"

Holding in a sigh, he responded, "Yes, Donna."

"And your wallet?" she queried from her side of the room.

"But I won't need it," he stressed. Her glare, however, made him amended his answer to, "Yes, it's here in my jacket pocket." He even added in a pocket pat to emphasise the location.

"Did you also put in the children's birth certificates? Jack went to an awful lot of trouble to get them for you."

"No, I just thought I'd swan in there and they'd hand over the keys to the City of London," he sarcastically retorted.

"Don't make me come over there and slap you one!" she threatened. "Although that tie needs adjusting."

"For the love of…, woman!" he grumbled as she did just that. "I could have done it."

"And yet you didn't," she countered. "What a surprise."

He huffed in annoyance. "I'm sure you do this to make me feel intimidated."

"Can't say I do, but knowing that does add to the fun," she admitted, and grinned knowingly at him. "Feeling less nervous about some jumped-up pen jockey?"

"You know me too well. I'm ready to deal with the best of the Brexit jobsworths."

"Go get 'em, space tiger."

In answer, he playfully growled at her. "Are you sure you didn't want to come with me too?"

"I think it best that we don't risk me punching them in the face," she reasoned, and he nodded along with her.

"Okay. I'll see you later. Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast." To his delight, she burst out laughing at his quote. "Still got it," he boasted.

"What a shame you didn't give it away," she deadpanned,

"I could go with you, Dad," Jenny suddenly offered from where she sat on the bed, watching their exchange. "My training would help defend you against any military interference."

"Erm," the Doctor faltered. "Maybe not. You and Andy should stay with your grandmother, as planned." He then turned his head towards his wife. "What do you think, Donna?"

"Mum was looking forward to seeing you," she agreed, aiming the comment at Jenny. "The Brexit people will be more interested in whether your dad and me are a genuine couple." She then visibly changed her mind. "Alright, I'll come with you, Doctor. That way I'll know immediately where they've dragged you off to, should you get escorted out of the building by a couple of heavies."

He grinned in triumph. "I knew there was a reason I kept you with me."

o0o

The waiting room they were led to by the letter the Doctor had received, was rather uninspiring. At the reception desk sat a lowly recruit who seemed rather overwhelmed with responsibilities, so they feigned ignorance whenever questioned. Several worried people were sat in there awaiting their sentence at the hands of whoever wielded the pen that day. There was no name or plaque to declare who they were, but no doubt the decision had already been made behind closed doors.

After a small eternity, the lad on reception called out, "Dr Noble, you can go on through now. Alone."

He had added that bit in the direction of Donna to make sure she didn't leave her seat; but she had already cottoned on that each applicant would be interviewed individually. No one else had gone in with moral support either. Yet she had wanted to show solidarity by standing to say goodbye to her husband. "Be a good boy now," she quietly told him. "No getting arrested or anything."

"Where's the fun in that?" he had teased in return. "Been a while. I might be rusty at breaking out." Then he had made a show of drawing her into a loving embrace and shared a kiss. The look of disgust on the receptionist's face had been worth it all on its own. "I promise I'll be back for you."

"You say that, but it could be ten years' time," she grumbled. "I mean it: no arrests."

After giving her a "what me? As if I would" type of look, the Doctor deliberately sauntered into the officer's room.

"Ah. There you are at last, Dr Noble," the officer greeted him with barely concealed annoyance before shutting the door behind him. "Sorry for making you wait. Take a seat, would you." She then hurried to take the large formal antique leather chair at the desk.

"Doctor. You can call me just 'Doctor'," he corrected, taking the obviously lesser seat in the room. The nameplate proclaimed the woman to be Captain Alicia Gordon-Holmes. "There you go, Captain," the Doctor stated as he placed a pile of certificates down onto the desktop in front of her, "every shred of evidence I own. Our marriage certificate dated before the letter of deportation, please note, the deeds of the old family owned scrapyard to show we've lived here since the early 60s, my wife and my children's birth certificates to show they are British citizens."

Captain Gordon-Holmes, however, did not look very impressed with the evidence he had supplied, but she flipped through it all carefully to show willing. She even took her time photocopying it all before preying on her victim. "I have to tell you Doctor, if indeed that is your name, there is a slight problem with your application."

"Oh?" he queried, raising an eyebrow.

She was loving this now, making the applicant squirm. With maximum effort, she wound herself up to deliver what she thought was the fatal blow. "Oh indeed. You cannot be the Dr Noble or 'the Doctor' you claim to be, because the record of the Doctor we have here at UNIT shows him to be an elderly man who is probably long dead."

"Well, I did. Die that is," the Doctor argued, giving his neck a comforting rub. "You see, I'm a Time Lord. When we die, we change our face as well as our body and personality, to live as someone else."

Scowling heavily, Captain Gordon-Holmes leaned forward to angrily glare at him. "Don't talk daft! What sort of idiot do you take me for?"

 _A pen pushing one_ , he silently commented. "It's all in your records. Ask the Brigadier, if you don't believe me. That's Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart. Or perhaps his aide: Sergeant John Benton. They can vouch for me."

It was obvious that the Captain wanted to do nothing of the sort. "I don't think so," she denied.

"Or Colonel Alan Mace, who was in charge of the Sontaran incident," the Doctor continued. "Do you know Colonel Mace? Probably not as much as Captain Marion Price does. Although I much preferred Captain Erisa Magambo when I met her during the bus business. And there was that lovely science chap. Dr Malcolm Taylor was his name. He's a big fan of mine."

"Enough, Dr Noble," the Captain protested, slamming a hand down onto the polished wooden desktop. "All you are doing is throwing names at me."

"Real names. Good names. People who exist."

She rose from her seat to try and intimidate him then, thoroughly pissed off by his nonchalant attitude. "Nevertheless, this case will have to be closely examined. There will be a court review, eventually. In the meantime, I suggest you get ready to leave the country."

"But what about my family?" he asked. "Where will they go? I have a son and daughter to consider. And my wife can be quite vicious when put out."

"You will find out in the next couple of weeks via an official letter," she began to dismiss him; wanting him gone from her sight.

The phone rang at that point and the Captain grasped the opportunity to answer it.

"Don't mind me. Take as long as you like," the Doctor commented, as though she would take him into consideration.

The stern expression on her face changed to surprise and then horror. "They're here?! But... Yes, sir. Right away, sir." She put the phone down and then turned apologetically to address the Doctor. "It appears there has been a slight misunderstanding," she slowly explained. "And we have a special visitor waiting outside who wants to meet you in person."

"Really?" He grinned cheekily and sat back in his chair with some satisfaction.

A sharp knock on the door was quickly followed by it being opened by an efficient secretary. "Your visitor, Captain."

In behind them swept in a tall blonde woman with a no-nonsense attitude. "Good morning, Doctor. You might remember me," she stated as she offered a hand for him to shake; ignoring Captain Gordon-Holmes. "I'm Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. My late father often spoke well of you."

"It's good to meet you," the Doctor enthused as he returned the greeting.

Kate smiled genially at him. "Your application to stay was brought to my attention by another old colleague of yours, so I've had a chance to begin proceedings to sort it out while you were off saving the planet and the universe."

The Captain tried to hide a scoff, but Kate noticed it anyway. "Yes, Captain, this man, and his wife in particular, are the reason you are still alive."

"It's what anyone would do when facing the Daleks," the Doctor downplayed but was slightly chuffed to be able to boast about it in this way.

"Indeed," Kate noted, mischievously smiling at him. "All in a day's work. Come, I've ordered tea to be prepared for us."

"In that case, I'll get the missus. She's waiting outside."

o0o


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N:** sorry for the awfully long time I took to merely add a few sentences.

* * *

 **Part Nineteen**

.

Outside in the waiting room, Donna had heard a commotion and assumed, quite wrongly as it happened, that things were kicking off. Jumping up, she ran to accost the first soldier or security guard that she saw. "You'd better not even THINK of laying a finger on him or me and my husband will sue your backsides off!" she warned the one escorting the Doctor out of the office.

"It's okay," the Doctor tried to appease her. "All sorted."

"In what way 'all sorted'?" she demanded of him. "Because I wouldn't class being escorted away by soldiers as a roaring success."

"Mrs Noble?" an authoritative female voice queried before a blonde middle-aged woman stepped in front of the soldier. "If you would accompany us, please."

"We're invited to tea," the Doctor whispered cheekily to Donna as they walked.

They were led into an office with soft furnishings, then the woman turned to introduce herself to Donna. "Good to finally meet you. I'm Kate Stewart. Daughter of Brigadier Leithbridge-Stewart," she tacked on for clarification.

Donna shook the hand that had been offered. "Nice to meet you too. What's your dad got to do with all this?"

Rubbing his earlobe awkwardly, the Doctor muttered, "I told you about my old friend the Brigadier from my UNIT days."

"Oh yes! Sorry," she apologised to Kate, taking an offered seat in front of an antique coffee table. "Went a bit off the grid then. There's far too much to remember in his life. Can barely remember my own most of the time. So when's the last time you two saw each other?"

"I would have been about seven or eight years old," Kate replied, adjusting her seated pose. "Too long ago to remember much but Father often mentioned the Doctor. My father was based in Peru these last few years."

"What was the old boy doing there?" the Doctor wondered in surprise.

There followed a long conversation about people and events Donna had little knowledge of, and was of even less relevance to her, so she politely sat back and let the two of them get on with it, apart from the odd question on the side for clarification. Yet the Doctor reminiscing about the old days with the Brigadier left her feeling totally excluded from their jaunt down memory lane.

To the side of her, the Doctor was concerned by her lack of vivaciousness. Normally his Donna made everyone feel welcomed in their presence. It was her forte, after all, to be warm and not jealous. He tried drawing into the conversation, using small compliments, by pointing out beings he had mentioned, or cute observations of places they had also visited; but all she did was smile patiently back at him.

"You know," Kate began to say, carefully sipping from her china tea cup, "you were never in any real danger of being deported after all the time you've lived in Britain."

"Really?" the Doctor sarcastically queried. "I settled in Totters Lane a decade after most of the people of the Windrush generation arrived, and yet they were the first to be targeted to be thrown out of the country."

Kate daintily cleared her throat. "There have been some errors."

"Big, stonking errors, you mean," Donna scornfully put in. "Dragging off little old grandmothers like they are criminals."

"Yes. Well," Kate blustered under the sudden glare of her guests. "They will be compensated." She then quickly added, "As shall you both; and your children."

"Give your payment to those who deserve it," the Doctor dismissed. "We don't need the money, merely the freedom to visit Britain, and London in particular, whenever we want."

"Anyway, Her Majesty the Queen contacted us to formally request that you become a British citizen," Kate admitted, with a reassuring smile. "You will attend the ceremony in at the first opportunity."

"I can say my allegiance piece now, if you like, but I won't be attending any formal ceremony," the Doctor proclaimed.

"He _is_ Sir Doctor of Tardis, after all," Donna added, "so you'd think that would have fast tracked him."

The Doctor stood and put his tea cup down. "Time to go home," he said as Donna joined him. "It was lovely to meet you, Kate. My deepest condolences regarding the Brigadier."

Shaking his outstretched hand, Kate could see why her father had said that the Doctor was irritating to work with at times, and she had expected his dismissal of the royal privilege. Nevertheless, she couldn't help liking him. "A pleasure, Doctor. Mrs Noble."

"Well. I never thought we'd both walk calmly out of here after drinking tea," Donna whispered to her husband as they out through the front entrance.

He offered his arm for her to hold. "I hope to surprise you even more in the years to come."

"Tart!" she playfully retorted. "I bet you say that to all the girls."

"No, just to my wives," he answered, and gained a light swat for his troubles.

o0o

Back at the Noble homestead, as it were, plans had been rapidly put into place. Having silently made the decision between them, Jenny shared a conspiratorial look with her brother and then stepped up close to their grandmother's side as she busily prepared sandwiches for lunch. "Nan, how do you feel about helping us celebrate Mum and Dad's wedding?"

Sylvia looked blankly at her grandchildren. "But they've already celebrated it."

"Not with us they haven't," Andy stressed.

"We totally missed out," Jenny added. "So… can we?"

"It needn't be any more bother than a simple birthday tea affair," Andy offered. "Just plenty of tea and a few cakes."

"I suppose so," Sylvia allowed, unable to refuse them anything. Especially when Jenny pouted prettily. "Who did you want to invite?"

"Just Dad's friends that he's recently travelled with. Martha, Jack, Sarah Jane, her son, Mickey, and Jack's boyfriend. People like that," Andy listed. "They didn't even know he was married. "

"I bet that was a bit awkward when they all met up again during the Dalek business," Sylvia noted. "Didn't they ask him why they'd not been invited to the wedding?"

"There wasn't really the chance to," Jenny defended, "what with Mum almost dying, sending the planets home and all that."

"Still," Sylvia argued, "he should have included his friends. It would have been nice to meet them all before now."

Andy smiled encouragingly. "Never mind. There's time to do that now."

" _IF_ the authorities let him stay in the country," Jenny added.

Seeing Sylvia's expression drop, Andy consoled her by saying, "Just you watch, Nan. He'll talk them into letting him be a proper British citizen."

Jenny nodded fervently in agreement. "Mum says he's got the gift of the gab."

"That's one way of describing it," Sylvia murmured to herself. "Right you two, let's start getting organised. We need to contact these friends of his and find out when they can make it. Then we have to sort out food and drinks."

"I've already forewarned them it might be today," Andy gleefully declared, "so all we need is a couple of quick phone calls and a trip to Tesco's."

o0o

It all seemed suspiciously quiet when Donna opened the front door to her mother's home. "Andy losing his touch already?" she questioned the Doctor beside her. Then she cautiously opened the lounge door and gawped at the unexpected company in there. "What are you lot doing here?"

"Well?" Sylvia queried, looking up from her plate of sandwiches. "Is this a celebration or a goodbye party?"

"I can stay!" the Doctor announced. "Let's celebrate."

"Congratulations!" a couple of the guests burst out with.

"And belated congratulations on getting married," Sarah Jane said as she toasted them with her cup of tea.

Wilf instantly bustled forward. "Cake. We've got special cake," he told the room. "So, I'll put the kettle back on. You must be gasping," he aimed at the couple.

"I am," the Doctor happily agreed.

Some minutes later, Donna grabbed her chance to find out the latest news about Martha's fiancé. "How's Tom? Are you seeing him soon?"

"He's fine," Martha answered. "I won't get to see him for a couple of months though."

"What a shame," Donna commiserated.

"So…," Martha opened her own pressing question with, cheekily tilting her head, "how's married life? It must be weird being tied to the Doctor."

"Weird just about sums it up," Donna confessed, glancing towards the Doctor who was being questioned to within an inch of his life by Sarah Jane's son Luke. "At least I was nice and convenient for him."

"Oh come on!" Martha protested. "The way you two behave around each other, even back when we first met, it was obvious that was something going to happen between you."

Donna scoffed at that. "Nothing can compare to how he was before I showed up. Apparently."

Martha scowled. "Don't be daft. Just consider how much the Doctor must think of you if he was willing to lose Rose."

There was movement by the side of them and a familiar face appeared.

"Are you two talking about Rose?" Jack asked, keen to add his two pennyworths to their conversation. "You know, I've seen him with all three of you now and there are marked differences between how the Doctor acted with Rose, after her with Martha and then with Donna here," he pointed out to his audience.

"Which means?" Donna wondered, in order to encourage him to say more.

"He might actually be better with you," Jack answered.

As Martha smiled in acknowledgement, Donna dismissed his words with an angry gesture.

"No, listen to me," Jack argued. "Think about it, will you. The Doctor is no longer worried about hiding his emotions - he is much a calmer, happier and giving person now. Rose used to complain how much he flirted with other women, and vice versa."

"Some woman flirted with him once, but I've never seen him flirt with another woman," Donna slowly admitted, intrigued that none of that happened in front of her. He'd confessed that some woman at Adipose Industries had offered to be Health & Safety with him, but it had all happened before they met again. "But that means nothing, right?"

"I'm not so sure," Martha replied. "He did some flirting in front of me. Chose Joan, remember. Even grabbed a cat nun once."

"A what?" Never mind, Donna decided. It didn't matter when her concern was her marriage.

Yes, her and the Doctor had fallen for each other on her wedding day, but it had been too soon, considering her cheating fiancé had just died. It would have been unseemly to just go off with him that Christmas Eve. But she had sought him out later.

"You're acting like you're having second thoughts about things," Jack pondered.

"Oh Donna," Martha immediately sympathised when her friend averted her gaze. "How can you have doubts? You've married him now, had two children, changed species, the lot," she pointed out. "Worth giving it a go, surely."

Jack willingly took up the argument. "The Doctor loves all his companions, so maybe Rose was mistaken for a different kind of love," he softly insisted when Donna shook her head. Placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, he suggested, "Give him a chance to show his true feelings."

It took all Donna had to avoid blurting out that Martha hadn't thought Rose was no idle threat at the time; and the Doctor hadn't even mentioned meeting her! So much for making an impact. Instead, she gave a non-convincing, "All right. I'll try."

Then she was surprised that Martha suddenly revealed, "I've just thought of something. You know what I found really strange at the time, just before we met up with Jack…" Jack's face lit up at the chance of hearing some gossip. "The Doctor was rather upset after we'd left Joan behind in 1913. I assumed he'd made a mistake walking away from her but no, I remember him quite specifically saying he'd betrayed his bride."

"You never told me that before," Jack accused her.

"Sorry, I've only just remembered. For all I knew, he'd gone a little bit batty. And we had all that business with the Master straight afterwards, so it went clean out of my mind," Martha apologised. "When I quizzed him further by asking if he had married Rose, he had reluctantly answered no, and then changed the subject. Now I know why that had always puzzled me."

"It's a mystery," Donna agreed.

Obviously, she didn't mention to them Andy's little role in his parents falling in love; but she still fretted whether it was enough to base a long-term relationship on. But here was Martha offering a different slant on things. Had the Doctor been pining after her? Really?! It sounded too fanciful.

There was only one way to know for sure: she'd have to ask him and get it from the horse's mouth, as it were.

o0o

On entering the TARDIS, Andy held his arms wide and yawned dramatically. "I don't know about you Jenny but I'm dog tired. All that running about today has done me in so I'll say: 'good night'. Night, Mum. Night, Dad."

"Good idea, Andy," Jenny replied. "Good night!"

"Good night," everyone responded.

Seconds later Donna noted that she'd been deliberately left on her own with the Doctor. "I take it they've decided to give us a sort of wedding night, alone together."

Looking up from the console as he set the TARDIS for a new destination to rest in, the Doctor distractedly murmured, "Hmm? Probably."

She waited for him to say something even vaguely romantic, but inevitably it didn't happen. Her anger and disappointment with her situation warred within her. Should she say something, ask her question, or demand that he care? No, that'd be daft. "I suppose I'd better turn in too."

Her tone caught his attention and then he noticed Donna's pensive expression. "Out with it. I can tell you've been dying to say something to me," he proclaimed.

"Well. I _was_ wondering about something, now that you mention it." It was now or never, and this was her golden opportunity, so she asked him, "Do you remember having a conversation long ago with Martha, about you possibly regretting not going back for Joan?"

His face paled, and he blustered, "I do not want to discuss Joan right now. She has nothing to do with us."

"If you're going to avoid the subject, then I think she does," she retorted, deliberately letting him think she was peeved about that.

There was, however, no instant dismissal of his previous love and him admitting he had mentioned her as his bride. What she had hoped for was completely different to the reaction she received.

"Do you know what I'm beginning to regret the most?" he suddenly ranted. "How thick am I for falling in love with a human!"

Oh. She stared at him in horror.

"Yes, you're right to be disgusted with me," he bitterly continued, "because if I had to choose, it would be the one I already love; not some new candidate foisted on me by circumstances."

That sounded ominous, and her spirits dipped even lower. "You might as well tell me the rest, now that it's me that's been foisted on you by circumstances," she retaliated. "If you want to go back and pick Joan instead to spend your life with, now's the time to say it."

His face changed from irate to confused. "Don't you know what I think and what I feel?"

"No, I don't. Not anymore. That's why I'm asking," she griped. "Your mind has gone from my head now, thanks to the whole changing species business, so you'll have to explain yourself properly."

It was on the tip of his tongue to argue that their bond should provide some of that, but he wisely didn't. "I don't want Joan or anybody else. It's _you_ I fell in love with. Why can't you see that?" he cried. "Everybody else couldn't see I was holding back my feelings, but I expected you to notice."

"Why me?" she began to ask, and then changed tack. "If you are just saying all this to shut me up, I'll soon know. And I _will_ seek revenge."

He smiled wanly. "After all the planning and manoeuvring I did to get you to see me in a better light before persuading you to marry me, I would be the stupidest being alive in the universe to risk losing you by lying. You've always seen through me anyway."

"Too right I do," she snorted in scorn. "I'd have your guts for garters if you fibbed."

"I'd rather keep my innards where they are meant to be, thanks all the same."

Finally, his words began to seep past the enraged barrier she had built up, and her hopes rose accordingly. "You mean… I can stay married to you after all?"

"I'd love it!" he declared and gained the hug he'd missed out on the first time he said those exact words to her. "Did you really think I don't care about you enough to want you to stay?" he softly wondered. "Mrs Donna Noble, I will always want you by my side."

Within his arms, she shrugged. "Well. You know. It all seemed too good to be true before Rose turned up, and then I felt as though you'd probably made a mistake."

"Why? You had my mind in your head for a while, so how could you doubt me?"

"Because I felt your emotions when you took my hand in front of Rose. Your words didn't quite match your feelings."

"I explained that, how I wanted to remember the best of her, despite her reckless actions bringing her to the attention of the Judoon. And I showed her pity as she faced her sentence. You must have been aware of that," he reasoned.

"Yes, but…" She shook her head, not knowing what to say. "It's habit, expecting my love life to go pear-shaped. It always does."

He gave her a loving squeeze to stress his words. "There's no need to worry anymore. I love you," he murmured into her hair, "more than I have ever cared to admit."

"Shame, because you are going to have to admit it a lot more times."

"I can live with that, as long as you let me say it."

"Meh," she teased, with a mock shrug, and lifted her head to bask in his loving expression. "I suppose it's only fair that I say the same back to you." Gazing sincerely into his eyes, she whispered, "I love you, although god knows why."

It was a mystery they were prepared to let go, for now.

~o0o~


End file.
